J LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. J 



W D C P W 

| UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. J 



\ 



PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE 



FAITH. 



/ k2± 



By LEWIS P. OLDS. 



Earnestly contend for the Faith which was once delivered unto the 

saints. Saint Jude. 

I think we should be careful, in stating the doctrine of Faith, not to place it 
in opposition to reason. On the contrary, we only say what is sustained both 
by St. Paul and St. Augustine, when we assert that it is a very i-easonable thing 
to believe. Fenelon. 

It is a great truth, that in reality whatever may at times be the appearance, 
God never does desert, and never can desert, those who believe. 

Madam Guyon. 



PUBLISHED BY CARLTON & PHILLIPS, 



00 MULBERRY-STREET. 




X-SXKJSJiT. ^— N ^y 



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17 



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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, 
BY CARLTON & PHILLIPS, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District 
of New-York. 



VERY RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED 

TO 

THE MEMORY OF 

THE LATE 

STEPHEN OLIN, D. D., LL.D., 

PRESIDENT OF THE WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY, 

B$ one o£ tie most ljumile of %in CoILe^iai* gttmtro*. 



PREFACE. 



It is the custom of the schools to systematize every subject 
designed to be learned, and by setting it forth as much 
detached from extrinsic matter as practicable, and following 
up the principal idea in question to the close, to make the 
student thoroughly acquainted with it. And so with every 
class of instructors, each aiming at elaboration of thought 
till the mind is sufficiently imbued to discern the main 
features of the subject. 

It would perhaps be difficult to mention a subject in any 
department of knowledge remaining untouched ; but were we 
required to name one upon which such elaboration had not 
been practised, we should readily say that of faith. Not that 
it is a novel subject, for it is one of the oldest ; nor because 
it has not been a theme of constant allusion — for who listens 
to a discourse without hearing it mentioned ? — but that it has 
been too little discussed by itself, and therefore left to suffer 
by making it but the secondary matter under consideration. 
Hence there is no subject about which, when called upon, 
men cannot give more definite and satisfactory replies ; the 
knowledge respecting it appearing detached and incomplete, 
and requiring reflection to shape into system the ideas enter- 
tained. It appears as a skeleton to the fancy, awaiting some 



6 PREFACE. 

homogeneous matter to fill up the vacancies and make the 
body complete. 

It is to fill up this picture of the mind, in part, that the 
present volume has been designed ; and while in this view 
of its purpose the work needs no apologist — the fact, as sug- 
gested, being admissible by every one giving the subject a 
moment's reflection — the manner in which the task has been 
performed must be submitted to the most charitable con- 
sideration of the reader. 

But there is another view in which the design of these 
pages presents its claims boldly, however much the subject 
may have suffered in its treatment, and that is, the necessity 
of maintaining inviolate the alliance existing between reason 
and religion ; and while admitting that the former is depen- 
dent upon the latter for its growth and support, claiming for 
the latter the same connexion in order to secure any of its 
benefits. Every man should be able to give " a reason for 
the hope within him," not only by means of the assurance, 
afforded by the Spirit, of divine acceptance, but through a 
clear and analytical discernment of the nature and purpose 
of religion. Basing the hope upon a rational and solid 
foundation, the mind will not be " carried about by every 
wind of doctrine," but in times of trial always know where 
to look for the ancient landmarks. 

It is to be feared there is too great a disposition among 
the Churches to leave untouched the rudiments of Christian- 
ity, imagining that the practice of its plainer precepts will 
suffice, and especially fearing jars and discord among them- 
selves at any attempt to examine freely their creeds. But 
remembering that even the throes of the reformation were 
productive of the happiest results, and that pure systems are 



PREFACE. 7 

to be kept intact by watchfulness and effort ; that a creed is 
worthless which may prove unable to undergo the deepest 
searchings ; it becomes Christians to keep in view the dis- 
tinctive features of their canons, and constantly point the 
rising generation to the rule of belief and practice that will 
answer both for life and death. 

The analysis of creeds seems to have been periodical ; the 
aged of a passing generation not perhaps keeping so con- 
stantly in the view of the young as they ought to have done 
the foundations of their tenets, and ignorance of such, by the 
less reflecting, leading into strange or distorted systems, the 
Church has finally to save herself by setting up anew her 
standards and calling attention to her doctrines. Hence, in 
the later times of President Edwards, the subject of the will 
and other kindred topics were profoundly argued, and the 
world, aroused at the deep soundings of such minds, seemed 
restless for a while ; but since, all has become quiet again, 
and only now and then does a divine stir the placid fountain 
of polemics. Nor has the author in mind but two divines 
who have more recently written or discoursed on the pro- 
found subject of the fall of man ; the former the Rev. Dr. 
Spring, of New- York, and the latter, the Rev. Dr. Welsh, of 
Brooklyn : the one giving to the world his lucubrations on 
"First Things," but not without an occasional objector to 
the policy of evolving anew tenets so long held by him ; 
and the other grappling with the subject in a most fearless 
manner. Let the learned apprehend no injury to truth by 
their masterly efforts at defining their systems of theology, 
for they are the lights that must guide the young in their 
choice of a creed. 

There is the purest philosophy in religion, exceeding that 



8 PREFACE. 

of any other system ; and the more fully it is examined the 
richer the vein appears. There is system and beauty in 
everything God has designed in the natural world ; and we 
study the philosophy of planetary, sidereal, civil, social, and 
other systems with earnestness and pleasure ; and how shall 
we be excused from giving even more attention to the phi- 
losophy of living and dying happy ? Surely, in a matter of 
by far the greatest importance of any other — the way to holi- 
ness and heaven — God has not left himself without witness 
of his perfections, and therefore given the world, in the plan 
of redemption, the noblest system that ever existed. 

While, therefore, we have endeavoured to explain, in easy 
terms, the elements of faith, we have not forgotten to exem- 
plify largely its practice, by reference to the experience of 
the devout in ancient times, and of those more immediately 
of our day — enlarging, if not adorning, we trust, the more 
ordinary sphere of reflection upon both branches of the sub- 
ject — its philosophy and practice. And should any be led 
to examine more minutely these suggestions, or practise a 
more elevated system of doctrine, the praise ensuing to the 
name of the " Author and Finisher of our faith," and the 
good to man, will be the reward prayed for and most devoutly 
desired by the writer. 



CONTENTS. 



FIRST PART. 

CHAP. PAGE 

I. — General View of Faith 11 

II. — Pure, Simple, or Intellectual Faith 27 

HI. — Practical, Relying, or Saving Faith. 34 

IV. — Unity op Faith 50 

V. — A Living Faith and a Dead Faith 63 

VI. — Unbelief the Native Condition of the Mind 75 

VII.— Walk by Faith 86 

VIII. — The Three Antagonisms of Faith 99 

IX. — Faith and Works 112 

X. — Increase and Diminution of Faith 122 



SECOND PART. 

* I. — Ancient and Modern Faith Compared 144 

II. — Faith of Nations 170 

III. — Congregational Faith 182 

IV. — Faith of the Christian Ministry 194 

V. — Prayer and Faith 211 

VI. — Faith of the Cloister , 223 

VII. — Faith of Active Life 240 

VIII. — Faith of the Ignorant 257 

IX. — Faith of the Young 270 

X. — Faith in Prosperity 286 

XI. — Faith in Adversity 306 

XII. — Faith in Life and in Death 321 

1* 



PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE 

OF 

FAITH. 



imi fart 



CHAPTEE I. 

GENERAL VIEW OF FAITH. 

Such is the structure of the human mind that its 
knowledge is confined within a very limited circle, 
while all without and beyond that limit is an extended 
field of belief, or utterly unknown. What, therefore, 
we are said to know, we do not merely believe ; and 
what we only believe, we do not know. In regard to 
the same thing, the mind cannot be exercised by 
knowledge and belief at the same time. It is true 
that, as the circle of knowledge expands, the domain 
of belief is lessened: still, assuming the difference 
between what is known as bearing the same relation 
to what is unknown as a point to infinite space, it is 
manifest that the mind of finite beings will not only 
have to exercise belief during this life, but also in the 
next, and continue to believe in the truthfulness of all 
declarations made by the Infinite Being, — the con- 
summation whereof is necessitated to infinite duration. 



12 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

For instance, a promise of eternal happiness has been 
made by God to those who love him ; and as there can 
be no end to an infinite range of enjoyment, the blessed 
in heaven must ever approach the unattainable bounds 
of knowledge and bliss, and though realizing fully 
each moment the amount of happiness promised for 
that period, still necessarily exercise a certain degree 
of faith in the promise of that peace which is to be 
eternal. So, although it may be said that " hope will 
in fruition die," it must not be inferred that it ceases 
upon the entrance of the spirit into its new region of 
existence beyond the grave ; but that, while the spirit 
is continually enjoying its promised bliss in continu- 
ally arriving at new deductions in knowledge, it will 
keep steadily in view the promise of infinite joy. 
When all is known that can be learned by the human 
understanding, the bounds of knowledge, strictly 
speaking, are as far off as at first; and until the 
finite can grasp the truths of the infinite mind, it 
must continue to learn and revel in the happiness 
arising from such knowledge, — each degree of delight 
being as great as the soul can admit of, and its state 
of blessedness, therefore, being always perfect. Con- 
tinuing still the use of this figure of speech, selected 
as properly elucidating our thought, let it be added, 
in furtherance of this investigation, that as the circle 
of knowledge enlarges, the sphere of credulity lessens ; 
each verity, by encroaching upon its proximate belief, 
extending the confines of truth to the gradual decrease 
of mere persuasion ; and were there any bounds to 
science, a point would at length be gained where all 
would be known, leaving no room for faith. But it is 
clear that this point can never be gained, and man, 



GENERAL VIEAV OF FAITH. 13 

though always learning, can never be perfected in all 
knowledge: there will ever be some truths yet un- 
known. 

In order to know anything, it must be mathemati- 
cally certain ; but this certainty is not necessary to 
belief. Hence, a greater degree of assurance must 
exist in order to know than to believe a fact, and 
the nearer the proposition approaches certainty, the 
stronger is our faith — credibility being finally merged 
into truth. 

The mind cannot by willing it believe any proposi- 
tion, but it is swayed according to the nature of the 
proof afforded ; and the greater the weight of evidence, 
whether in quantity or quality, the readier the convic- 
tion takes place. And, duly regarding the diversity 
of intellect, hence arise the grades of belief — one per- 
son believing more, another less, of the same proposi- 
tion ; and while some are reducing their problems to 
a final result, others as yet find no evidence with which 
to begin the demonstration. 

It is well ascertained that the mind by use is in- 
creased in strength, and so more easily acquires every 
successive branch of science. In like manner, by 
realizing the fruition of repeated, even if they be 
diverse, promises made to it, it becomes easier to be- 
lieve for the future : so we hear of weak faith and 
strong faith, of a growing faith and a decreasing 
faith — which means, that by reason of exercise^ the 
mind is enabled to apprehend more readily the nature 
of the truths or objects proposed for its consideration ; 
or, by neglecting this exercise, fails to appreciate them 
as formerly. 

Accumulation of facts induces belief in some minds; 



14 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

others by cogent reasoning are convinced; while 
others will never arrive at any conclusion at all. It 
has been already stated that we cannot believe what 
we list ; but, at the same time, by using the evidence 
before us we are likely to come to some rational con- 
clusion, though the precise degree of conviction may 
differ in different persons. He who cannot use the 
mind is excused from believing ; but he who can, yet 
fails to do so, is guilty of a dereliction proportionate 
to the means of belief afforded. 

It is not necessary in this connexion to notice what 
responsibility there is resting upon those who are be- 
reft of reason after having had the use of it, or upon 
those of tender years whose minds are merely budding 
into life, but it is well to premise that certain truths 
may be so conspicuously set before their understand- 
ings or conceptions, or may — especially in the case of 
the very young — be so adapted to their capacity, and 
prove so august in their nature, as to influence each 
toward easy and speedy conclusions in regard to 
belief. 

But it may perhaps be objected that those who 
know least are most credulous, and hence it would 
seem that knowledge tends to lessen the power of 
faith. The truth is, those who know little will be 
satisfied with a less degree of evidence than those 
who know more ; and the point is somewhere attain- 
able at which the imbecile will either believe every- 
thing or nothing, and so consider everything beyond 
the narrow limits of their mental vision as either 
totally true or false. There are those, it is admitted, 
who, having enlarged views, fail to believe even simple 
truths ; yet it is quite discernible that the probability 



GENERAL VIEW OF FAITH. 15 

in favour of such basing their conclusions upon better 
evidence, and believing sounder verities in comparison 
with the ignorant is greatly increased; so, although 
the wise may disbelieve excellent truths, or credit the 
ones that are utterly untenable, still they are more 
likely to arrive at just conclusions than the undiscern- 
ing, and are certainly safer in matters of momentous 
consequence than the untutored or perversely blind. 

The region of the unknown being so dark and ex- 
tended, and the light of reason being so dim as to 
shine but faintly along the waste, it might have been 
rationally apprehended that He who said, " Let there 
be light, and there was light," to drive away the 
darkness from the creation, would also afford light to 
the human understanding, and illumine as was neces- 
sary the mental gloom. Hence, there is " a light en- 
lightening every man that cometh into the world," — 
a spiritual light that illumines every soul, and which 
shines with increased splendour when in the spirit 
world. And in regard to spiritual night, that dark- 
ness resting upon the mind and conscience since the 
fall of man, a light has indeed sprung up, and that 
gross darkness which covered the earth before the 
promise of a Saviour was made has been relieved, and 
the Star of Bethlehem becomes the Cynosure toward 
which all eyes are turned. 

Human belief not only concerns itself with the 
present and future, but likewise with the past. We 
have an historical faith, taking for truths many things 
we find recorded in the writings of past ages ; and, 
though it cannot be said that we really know them 
to be true, yet they are set down as such, and con- 
sidered every way worthy of human credence. 



16 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

Our faith, therefore, has necessarily a wide field in 
which to be exercised, and between deciding correctly 
or incorrectly upon the various matters of inquiry, 
life is exhausted in a kind of mental strife. Minds 
that are tenacious of proof, and of a speculative turn, 
will not so readily believe as those of an opposite 
character ; and it may often be seen that those whose 
reason is of less strength than that of others of a 
doubting disposition precede them in mere matters of 
faith ; it not only requiring, as we have previously ob- 
served, more evidence to satisfy the strong-minded 
than the weak, but also an additional amount to meet 
the peculiarity of the disposition we are now con- 
sidering. 

Hope adds strength to faith, and although it is 
impossible to weigh nicely the influence it has upon 
the mind, all are doubtless led to believe most easily 
those things which propose an increase of happiness, 
and, in like manner, disbelieve those things which 
propose additional misery. And if this peculiarity in 
the human constitution were left entirely to itself, faith 
would have the vantage ground in all the contests be- 
tween belief and unbelief — the preponderance ever 
being on its side ; and so truths of easy belief would 
be quickly seized upon, while others of greater un- 
certainty would come clothed in the garb of at least 
fallible assurance. But, unfortunately for our race, 
there appears to exist a principle of unbelief, growing 
out of the effects of the first transgression, and of many 
actual sins — this principle pervading every one ; and 
while the understanding will easily receive the argu- 
ments of science, it seems here to struggle against a 
secret power which would invalidate all religious 



GENERAL VIEW OF FAITH. 17 

truth; the device being so general as to reach all 
cases, and so successful as to endanger the peace of 
all. If it he not so, how is the constant perversity of 
the intellect in believing pious truths to be accounted 
for ? We believe without difficulty the plain truths 
of ordinary life — what we hear from the lips of friends, 
what we read in profane history, what we see around 
us ; but when religious truth is proposed for belief, 
when the Creator of all things speaks, and speaks 
words of comfort, then is the cloud upon the vision, 
and we hear all crying, " Lord, increase our faith !" 
We have therefore to conclude that the veil cast 
upon the heart of man must indeed be heavy, thus 
to obscure the light of those truths which, were 
they of less moment, would, under other circum- 
stances, be more or less ardently believed, because 
of promised happiness ; so heavy indeed that many 
believe but faintly, while others become utter unbe- 
lievers. 

It may not be uninteresting here to inquire how the 
evidence afforded by our senses, in leading the mind 
to conclusions, compares with that in support of faith 
in determining its convictions. Are we so certain of 
things promised, even by God himself, as we are of 
those things which we see or touch? Not to refer 
again to our previous conclusion, that the perversity 
of the human heart influences the mind in its tardi- 
ness to believe moral truths, let it suffice to say that 
he who would be convinced beyond any hesitation by 
the evidence of the senses will often question the 
plainest commands of God. And although the truths 
of God are infinitely certain, and surer to us than any 
thing we see, we are, nevertheless, slow to believe in 



18 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

the former case, but quick to credit in the latter. 
Were it otherwise God would not so repeatedly en- 
courage us to believe ; and, though questioning the 
evidence of our senses none the less, we would believe 
the everlasting promises of the Infinite the more. All 
yield to the convictions arising from the exercise of 
their senses, while all are prone to doubt the most 
necessary and certain word of life. The w r isdom and 
mercy of God is not only seen in promising good to 
us, and resting the realization of it upon the ground 
of faith, but is seen also in affording that encourage- 
ment he gives through the medium of our senses, by 
arguments appealing thereto, and thus aiding human 
weakness in the appropriation of divine truths to its 
benefit. 

Having now briefly directed attention to the nature 
of faith, as compared with knowledge, the application 
of its principle to the affairs of life, its operation under 
different circumstances, its necessary use in filling 
up all that space beyond the confines of knowledge, 
and so preventing existence from becoming a partial 
blank, as it would be without the aid of belief, the 
amount of knowledge being so meagre as to prove 
insufficient for the practical purposes of life, we now 
beg leave to direct the mind of the reader to the sub- 
ject of faith as connected with the salvation of man. 
Faith is so blended with all the^ affairs of life that it 
is difficult to confine the view of it to spiritual things 
alone. But faith is a simple exercise of the mind, 
rising up to that point at which knowledge ends ; so 
there can really be no mistake as to what is known 
or unknown, though there may exist a variety of 
shades of belief. Still every act of faith, or believing, 



GENERAL VIEW OF FAITH. 19 

is as perfect of itself as any other act ; and although, 
it is usual to speak of knowing one thing better than 
another, and of believing one thing more than an- 
other, strictly speaking, if anything be known, it can- 
not be better known, the evidence being sufficient to 
carry conviction to the mind. It is true that more 
reasoning is required in some cases than in others ; 
or, in other words, that some things are easier known 
than others. 

But in matters of faith, which constitute a majority 
of the concerns of life, the shades of belief are numer- 
ous, and we are continually said to believe simply, 
theoretically, practically, or fully — now more, now 
less, even in these several respects — to believe quickly, 
slowly, ignorantly, or savingly. All these, and many 
more grades of belief, are found mentioned in the 
sacred writings, showing that the exercise of faith 
may be as varied as the circumstances giving rise to 
them. 

After arranging mankind under the two grand 
divisions of believers and unbelievers, it becomes in- 
teresting to trace the various positions assumed by 
them in view of the evidence afforded. One man be- 
lieves all things, another but little ; one believes, and 
afterwards changes his persuasion into doubt or un- 
belief ; still another disbelieves, doubts, and then be- 
lieves. Now although this be so in matters of faith 
generally, and especially in minor matters of belief, 
we have previously said enough to suggest a convic- 
tion, that particularly in matters of religious faith 
is this continual change going on in the minds of 
men ; a struggle or species of contest being mean- 
time associated with effort at believing divine things 



20 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

unknown in mere temporalities ; the soul being ready- 
to exclaim, in the language of the poet : — 

" If sometimes I strive as I mourn 

My hold on Thy promise to keep, 
The billows more fiercely return, 

And plunge me again in the deep." 

But few, if any, doubt the depravity of the human 
race. Everything within and without us tends to the 
proof of this fact. It can hardly, one would think, be 
a subject of belief, but rather an axiom in ethics. 
And, admitting it as true, it becomes a very interest- 
ing inquiry to men, how they can be relieved in this 
their moral condition, — how renewed in their fallen 
nature so as to be reinstated in the favour of God — 
and, in truth, since 

" A fairer paradise is founded now 

For Adam and his chosen sons, whom thou, 

A Saviour, art come down to reinstall — 

Where they shall dwell secure, when time shall be 

Of tempter and temptation without fear" 

to regain it ? In man's lost estate it was impossible 
for him to create a remedy equal to the emergency. 
Yea, it was impossible for him even to discover what 
that remedy could be before the promise was made, 
that " the Seed of the woman should bruise the ser- 
pent's head." It being, therefore, beyond his ability 
to devise a plan of salvation, and feeling sensibly its 
need, it is quite natural to suppose that, in the day 
when the promise was given, he would most earnestly 
behold its provision for his redemption, even if it 
staggered his faith. And in later times, when the 
promise was verified, how great must have been the 
joy at beholding it, and how much increased the faith 
of the beholders ! 



GENERAL VIEW OF FAITH. 21 

It would be an unfair assumption to say that the 
power and wisdom originating and executing a plan 
of salvation, was unable or unwilling to make the 
benefits resulting from it attainable by the intended 
recipient. This would be to presuppose a defect of 
wisdom, power, or mercy — or a change in the divine 
mind — any of which presumptions must be incompati- 
ble with truth. Admitting, then, as we have hitherto 
done, that there is a means of salvation appointed for 
all the human race, by One capable of such appoint- 
ment, it is equally true that the way leading to this 
result would be made plain to all who are privileged 
to walk in it. Yea, more, since indifference to this 
way is visited with punishment, and there is an obli- 
gation resting upon all of obedience to the authority 
of the Sovereign of the world, we are involuntarily 
led to conclude that nothing but inattention to this 
way of salvation can bring destruction upon the soul. 
" For," says Chillingworth, " whom God obligeth to 
believe anything, he will not fail to furnish their un- 
derstanding with such inducements as are sufficient 
(if they be not perverse and negligent) to persuade 
them to believe." Now do we find in the Scriptures 
credible arguments upon which to predicate belief? or 
is everything there expressed vague, unreasonable, or 
beyond the comprehension of one trying to believe ? 
For it is not necessarily required that all which a 
superior Being knows should be understood by one of 
infinitely less capacity, but so much as answers the 
purpose designed. The least possible requirement 
of man, in order to his being saved, as appears from 
the word of God, is, Eepent, and believe the gospel. 
And as every assistance necessary is afforded in the 



22 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

effort to be obedient to this command, enabling all to 
meet its requirements, man could ask no less a duty. 
God could not, consonantly with the character accord- 
ed him in the gospel, exact anything more. Kepent- 
ance and faith cover the whole ground of Christian 
duty ; and since if we believe only one truth that he 
hath uttered, and that one be for instance this, " He 
cannot lie," we therefore admit that all other truths 
are worthy of credence, so, in like manner if we question 
the veracity of God in one particular, we are in dan- 
ger of doubting altogether. Still it is our disposition 
to believe some things sooner or more easily than 
others. But the word of God being admitted, though 
different truths themselves might be arranged under 
the heads of greater and lesser, it could not affect 
the character of the truth, but only show that, as it 
relates to the operation of this truth upon the inter- 
est of man, there are greater results in one case than 
in another. And hence the true explanation of this 
seeming inconsistency is, that there may be obscurity 
in many texts of Scripture set before the mind for 
belief, and of many articles of faith relating exclu- 
sively to salvation ; but the obscurity does not release 
any from believing, so long as the matter and not the 
manner is credible. Only when the subject cannot be 
made evident with an evidence proportionate to the 
degree of faith required, is there any acquittal of the 
unbeliever. The truths essential to salvation, we have 
stated, God neither would nor could do otherwise than 
make plain, so that all might comprehend them — 
therefore none capable of exercising faith can be ex- 
cused from crediting unreservedly those portions of 
Scripture necessary to salvation. No doubt must be 



GENERAL VIEW OF FAITH. 23 

discernible there, for if the injunction to repent and 
believe be unheeded there can be no change of heart, 
and consequently no union with God. 

We have hitherto argued as if all faith was saving — 
that simply to believe the Scriptures was the only 
requisite to salvation. Let us now come to the con- 
sideration of the different operations of faith in con- 
nexion with the coordinate branches necessary to sal- 
vation, namely, repentance and obedience to the will 
of God. Faith and repentance must ever go hand in 
hand to prove effectual ; and the repentance that does 
not beget faith, and the faith that does not produce 
repentance, is not that required as essential to salva- 
tion. There may be a period at the transition from 
a state of infancy to accountability — a single moment 
only — when faith alone, without repentance or any 
other consideration^ sufficient, were the subject to die 
under such circumstances. But after that period is 
passed, and accountability begins, unless there be holi- 
ness of life uninterruptedly succeeding, repentance 
must follow, and under either circumstance is obe- 
dience exacted. And in the case of the thief on the 
cross there might not have been a requirement of 
that obedience expected in all cases less eventful, as 
there was no space left for anything but repentance 
towards God and faith in Christ. This saved him ; 
for Christ said, " This day thou shalt be with me in 
paradise." 

The term faith being a leading feature of the sacred 
Scriptures, and often used to express all the requisites 
to salvation, it is not surprising that there should 
have been much written concerning it, and different 
conclusions arrived at in regard to its nature and use ; 



24 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

but so varied are these views, and so scattered among 
the hooks of ancient and modern times, that it is 
almost impossible to array, with any great precision 
or force, the sentiment that has most generally pre- 
vailed. This will more generally appear when it is 
considered that nearly every writer upon the subject 
of sacred truth has, in some mode or other, touched 
upon this subject — these instances being so detached, 
or so connected with other matters, as to become the 
minor points. 

The principle of faith having so much to do with 
the salvation of the soul — entering into every part of 
it — it has been found easy to glide insensibly into the 
error of personating it, and appropriating some of the 
merit of Christ to the only saving power, to faith only 
as a means and way of using this power in order to 
salvation. Hence, with the best intentions, all ages 
have entertained notions and based creeds upon faith 
in Christ as the hope of heaven, which have served to 
confuse the mind, discredit the plan of salvation, and, 
it is feared, prevented some from coming to the light 
that they might have life. With the same sincerity 
of intention many have trusted to mere obedience for 
happiness in the world to come. The true theory un- 
doubtedly is, to unite faith and works in such a man- 
ner as shall allow the mind to attach due credit to the 
infinitely meritorious character of the Saviour, and 
permit this belief to glide into a trust in that merit 
alone for salvation. Melancthon, in his Apology, 
thus speaks : " To represent justification by faith only 
has been considered objectionable, though Paul con- 
cludes that a man is justified by faith without the 
deeds of the law." So, in the Homily on Salvation: 



GENERAL VIEW OF FAITH. 25 

" St. Paul declares nothing upon the belief of man 
concerning justification, but only a true and lively 
faith, which nevertheless is the gift of God, and not 
man's only work without God. And yet that faith 
doth not shut out repentance, hope, love, dread, and 
the fear of God to be joined with faith in every man 
that is justified, but only shutteth them out from the 
office of justification." Justification by faith alone is 
the doctrine of the Lutherans and the Church of En- 
gland. The Eomish Church, on the contrary, con- 
tends for justification by inherent righteousness, and 
makes faith a part of that righteousness. Others 
contend that faith and obedience are the same. Others 
that a union of faith and good works produces justifi- 
cation. Others that faith gives an interest in the 
merits of Christ to supply the deficiencies of imperfect 
but sincere obedience ; and, again, that faith itself is es- 
sentially the root of obedience. It is the doctrine of 
the Methodists " that although both repentance and the 
fruits of it are in some sense necessary before justifi- 
cation, yet neither the one nor the other is necessary 
in the same sense nor in the same degree with faith. 
Not in the same degree, for in whatever moment a 
man believes, in the Christian sense of the word, he 
is justified — his faith is counted to him for righteous- 
ness, But it is not so at whatever moment he repents, 
or brings forth any of the fruits of repentance. Faith 
alone therefore justifies — repentance alone does not. 
Nor in the same sense, for none of these has so 
great and immediate a relation to justification as 
faith. Faith is proximately necessary thereto; re- 
pentance and its fruits remotely so. And even in 
this sense of remoteness, when there is time and 

2 



26 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

opportunity for them, which in many cases there can- 
not be. 

The theory of Bishop Bull it is necessary to notice, 
as it gave rise to the celebrated controversy in his 
time, and as having made a deep impression on the 
belief of the English Church. It proceeds upon the 
ground " that justification is by works, the works 
meantime proceeding from faith ; that such works 
are done through the assistance of the Holy Spirit; 
and that, though there be no actual merit in the 
works, yet they are a condition of justification." An- 
other theory, having influence among the English 
clergy is, "that man is justified by faith only, if it 
be sincere and genuine ; faith being considered as a 
simple belief, a mere assent to the gospel, and noth- 
ing more." This they say was the faith which the 
apostles required preparatory to baptism. 

The last theory necessary to be noticed, though it 
is not extensively received, is that of Dr. Taylor, one 
of the most learned divines of later times. It assumes 
that justification is the property of every believing 
Jew and Gentile since the destruction of the Jewish 
polity ; and if any will believe, upon admittance to the 
privileges of the Church, that they are appropriating 
to themselves the blessings of salvation thus neces- 
sarily falling to them by the new covenant of grace, 
and desire holiness, they shall be saved. 



PURE, SIMPLE, OR INTELLECTUAL FAITH. 27 

CHAPTEE II. 

PURE, SIMPLE, OR INTELLECTUAL FAITH. 

All faith is simple, pure, and intellectual ; but what 
we are to understand by it here is, faith unaccom- 
panied by works, or even any trust or reliance, so in- 
dispensable to salvation. The faith here considered 
produces no change in the heart or conduct. We may 
in like manner believe all that has been spoken by 
the prophets, all the revelations of the New Testa- 
ment, and all that is recorded in the history of the 
present, yet the belief may not tend to the ameliora- 
tion of the moral condition in any manner whatever. 
Devils are said " to believe and tremble/' but their 
belief can produce neither repentance nor good works ; 
and there may be cases where the mind is similarly 
exercised, producing a certain degree of apprehension 
or terror so long as the truth is before it, but leading 
to no change either in the heart or life. Perhaps it 
may not be erroneous to say that all accountable 
beings possess this faith, or have at some time pos- 
sessed it. It is perhaps the kind first exercised by all 
previous to their entrance into the higher stages of 
effectual, saving faith ; and which, if they proceed no 
further therein^ will never act beneficially. The truths 
of Christianity must be more than credited by the 
understanding; there must be some step taken be- 
yond mere indifference as to whether they be so or 
not — a step leading to action : there must be an in- 
terest felt in those truths, and so strongly as to beget 



28 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

faith, which, if it does not rise to such height as it 
will soon if freely exercised, will engage the mind 
with other truths of proximate connexion, until the 
faith, which but a little while ago was weak, or prac- 
tically of but trifling importance, becomes great, en- 
abling its possessor to remove the greatest difficulties 
in the way of future belief. 

" A faith that doth the mountains move, 
A faith that shows our sins forgiven, 

A faith that sweetly works by love, 
And ascertains our claim to heaven." 

In the exercise of simple faith the mind unhesita- 
tingly determines upon such things as are presented 
for its decision, and if nothing is known or believed 
adversely, the proposition will meet with acceptance. 
And this whether the individual is young or old, 
trained or untrained in investigations of truth ; what- 
ever the strength or condition of the mind, there will 
be an instantaneous acknowledgment, by the under- 
standing, of the truth of the allegation. Thus the 
child, when told the greatest marvels, believes as 
readily as if they were the commonest occurrences ; 
for, having no experience inconsistent with the narra- 
tive, its tender mind involuntarily assents. So also 
in later life, when the mind is matured, the ignorant 
or simple-minded credits in the same manner what- 
ever is alleged to have taken place, so long as there 
is more evidence for than against its certainty. 

Now, although it be true that we are " saved by 
grace through faith," and that faith is exclusively 
the " gift of God," yet it does not embarrass the fact 
that a merely simple faith is the conviction alone of 
the intellect, and cannot, without rising higher in 



PURE, SIMPLE, OR INTELLECTUAL FAITH. 29 

point of interest, produce any moral changes. It is 
true, there can be no faith that justifies and saves 
previous to any assent of the understanding to the force 
of the arguments brought to bear upon it ; neverthe- 
less this simple faith is no part of true conviction, and 
must always be regarded as separate and distinct 
from it. In one sense intellectual faith may, with no 
special impropriety, be called the gift of God, inas- 
much as the whole mental organization is derived 
from him ; but not in the sense in which the apostle 
Paul used the expression when he says, " it is the gift 
of God." St. Paul knew that thousands, who assented 
freely and avowedly to the truths of the gospel, were 
not in the least measure affected by them, but lived 
in disobedience to the commandments, and in the 
utter disregard of all moral tenets. 

Different minds are differently constituted; and 
while one, calmly admitting the light of truth to pene- 
trate, moves not as it were a nerve of moral being — 
but, as when the morning light falls upon the cold 
and insensible marble warms it not — there are others 
whose course of thought is broken, and amidst their 
disquietude the light of truth communicates an im- 
pulse to the soul. Many hear the historical truths 
of the celebrated " Eetreat of the Ten Thousand/' 
" The Siege of Troy," or the " Destruction of the City 
of Jerusalem," without being at all moved by the ex- 
citing narrative, their thought immediately returning 
to its accustomed track ; while others listen to such 
recitals with quickened sensation, and remember for 
a time the wonderful incidents related, but yet with- 
out a lasting impression. Likewise many read in the 
sacred writings the most beautiful illustrations of 



30 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

divine goodness, as shown in the redemption of the 
world by the gift of the Saviour ; and while one is 
filled with admiration or awe at the details, another 
disregards, and straightway loses all recollection of 
them. 

It is, therefore, apparent that something more must 
flow from the belief of any truth to enable the hearer to 
profit by it than the simple admission of its light into 
the mind : that there must be added to a conviction 
of its reality an interest in its existence; and that this 
interest must be lively, incorporating itself with the 
moral part of human nature, and becoming a portion 
of the mind's being. Wherever the light of divine 
truth falls, if it but reaches the heart, it begins to 
warm and move into vigour the truer, purer, and more 
deeply-hidden sensibilities of the soul ; and by the 
willing, and we had almost said involuntary, gift of 
faith, relying, appropriating faith, the heart is in- 
stinctively drawn towards the great central Sun from 
whence the rays descend, and, by persevering trust 
and hope, rises, and is at last lost in the radiance of 
the glorious Orb. 

This evidence, afforded by our experience of the in- 
operative tendency of divine truth upon the heart, 
from a mere assent to it, is further verified by the 
declarations and assumptions of the Scriptures them- 
selves. For in a certain place it is said by the Sav- 
iour that " whosoever heareth these sayings of mine 
and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which 
built his house upon a rock," &c. And, on the con- 
trary, " Every one that heareth these sayings of mine, 
and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish 
man, which built his house upon the sand," &c. And 



PURE, SIMPLE, OR INTELLECTUAL FAITH. 31 

again, in the memorable reproofs of the scribes and 
Pharisees, our Saviour charges them with "paying 
tithes, but omitting the weightier matters of the law 
— judgment, mercy, and faith." Now regarding the 
importance attached to the virtues of judgment or 
justice and mercy by the Scriptures, and that it is 
said to be the peculiar property of God to show mercy, 
it will be easy to see the position faith occupies in the 
economy of grace, and that no simple credence to the 
teachings of Holy Writ can perform the duties of it as 
here implied, in being set after the other two duties 
mentioned. The scribes and Pharisees were loud in 
their professions for the ceremonial law, assenting to 
its authority and virtue, yet they are here said to 
omit faith, which, by the way, was one of the weightier 
matters of the law. Their faith was superficial, and 
they appear not to have discerned the true system of 
religion, though they made the law and the prophets 
their constant study. 

" Faith," says Bishop Horseley, " is not merely a 
speculative, but practical acknowledgment of Jesus as 
the Christ — an effort, a motion of the mind towards 
God." " It is not, surely, that we may merely be- 
lieve," says Watson, " that the death of Christ is a 
sacrifice for sin, that he is set forth as a propitiation, 
but that we may trust in its efficacy ; it is not that we 
may merely believe that God has made promises to us, 
that his merciful engagements in our favour are re- 
corded, but that we may have confidence in them, and 
be supported by them." 

Yet there have been found advocates of the theory 
that "justification follows mere assent to the gospel." 
And we mention the names of Bishop Tomline and 



32 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

Dr. Whitby. For the former of these divines, in his 
refutation of Calvinism, sets out with the assertion 
that ''faith and belief, strictly speaking, mean the 
same thing; it therefore follows that if a penitent 
heathen or Jew, convinced that Jesus was the Mes- 
siah, the promised Saviour of the world, having un- 
derstood that baptism was essential to the blessings 
of the new covenant, of which he was fully persuaded, 
would eagerly apply to some one of those who were 
accustomed to baptize, his baptism, administered ac- 
cording to the appointed form to a true believer, would 
convey justification." But the learned prelate fails 
to give that complexion to his period doubtless in- 
tended, and as we are left to conjecture the course of 
his thoughts, it may be fairly supposed that in his 
honest but zealous endeavour to set before the mind 
the imposing character of the graces of the ordinance 
of baptism, he affiliates this, in his opinion, almost, if 
not. quite, saving ordinance with faith, principally, 
though not to the entire disregard of repentance, and 
concludes that simple faith, or, in other words, intel- 
lectual assent, has produced justification. With the 
concomitants only, which he mentions as finding their 
way in the lead of faith, it may be possible for one to 
become justified; but he connects belief, repentance, 
and baptism — the one suggesting the other in regu- 
lar succession ; and, because the suitable conjunction 
of these particulars are entitled even to salvation, 
attributes the whole work, in theory, to the force of 
simple faith, though not without being suspected of 
an overweening confidence in the last of these steps 
to justification. However this may be, his argument 
fails to sustain itself. Nor does it appear that Dr. 



PURE, SIMPLE, OR INTELLECTUAL FAITH. 88 

Whitby improves much upon this mode of reasoning. 
He contends that " simple assent, when firm and sin- 
cere, justifies, yet not immediately, hut by the pre- 
liminary step of obedience, which it inevitably pro- 
duces ; and that the apostles were enjoined to baptize 
upon a belief merely in the Messiahship and Sonship 
of our Lord." 

St. James, in his epistle from which the above ar- 
gument was drawn, says, that "faith without works 
is dead;" intimating that no man can be justified by 
a merely inoperative faith. St. James is free in con- 
fessing that obedience is a very necessary adjunct to 
faith in its saving tendencies ; and Dr. Whitby, while 
professedly advocating a doctrinal belief, acknowledges 
the impossibility of doing without obedience, and by 
relying so much thereon, coincides with his antago- 
nist, Bishop Bull, whom we had occasion previously 
to mention. With St. James, we therefore conclude 
that " he who believeth doeth well," for all happiness 
proceeds from this beginning ; but the assent of the 
mind alone to the whole of the records of truth com- 
bined — the records of written and unwritten lore, the 
record made up of the written page of the word of 
God, and that of the great volume of nature, which 
every eye scans upon opening into life — can never 
acquit the fallen and guilty, and administer an ad- 
mittance to them into the peaceful abode of those who 
have "fought the good fight," and " washed their robes 
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." 

" The just shall live by faith," but not that faith 
which is only dead ; for, if possible, eternal life would 
have been given by the old dispensation alone, for 
that had the semblance of a good covenant, in having 



34 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

many works of obedience and faith to give it charac- 
ter, and encourage all in patient well-doing. But a 
better covenant had to be made, one exhibiting new 
beauties and new hopes ; and indifference to its man- 
dates, or a weak persuasion of its truth, cannot surely 
place men in a better condition as to salvation than 
were our fathers, who " obeyed all the records written 
in the law to do them," waiting with patient assiduity 
at the altar, from year to year, in the office of priest 
within and as people without, worshipping with those 
lamentations known only to the land of the lawgiver, 
and those praises and thanksgivings which have im- 
mortalized the " sweet singer of Israel," and which 
to this day are wont to resound along the aisles of 
the Lord's house, where his Honor is pleased to dwell 
with all who worship him under this covenant of grace. 



CHAPTEE III. 

PRACTICAL, RELYING, OR SAVING FAITH. 

The mere assent of the understanding to the gospel 
being insufficient for the purposes of salvation, it be- 
comes important to inquire into that exercise of the 
mind which is necessary. A belief, however strong, 
which leaves the heart unaffected, is incompetent to 
secure it, as both judgment and feeling are exercised 
in regeneration. Better is it to have the faintest idea 
of the plan of redemption, if the affections are reached, 
than to possess the wisdom of sages, with insensi- 
bility. 

" In Scripture," says Watson, " faith is presented 



PRACTICAL, RELYING, OR SAVING FAITH. 35 

under two leading views. The first is that of assent, 
or persuasion ; the second that of confidence, or re- 
liance. That the former may be separated from the 
latter is also plain, though the latter cannot exist 
without the former." The gospel assumes man to be 
subject to a law, that by an unhappy violation of that 
law he has come under condemnation of death. In 
mercy to him a sacrifice was found to appease the 
vengeance of Justice, and the promise of a Saviour, 
like a rainbow on the cloud, came to cheer the crimi- 
nal as he lay bound with chains of darkness ; and 
every eye was directed to the great Friend of sinners, 
who should come to save the people from their sins. 
But the salvation of man must be by the death of the 
Mediator between God and man, and a ritual of blood 
was therefore appointed to shadow forth to long re- 
volving ages the nature of the expiation to be made. 
Now, in the continued typical sacrifices the Jews and 
Gentiles were taught to trust and confide, and " with- 
out the shedding of blood there was no remission of 
sins." So in these they trusted, and looked forward 
to that brighter day when these types and shadows 
of good things to come were all to be done away in 
Christ. At last the promise, made so long before, 
was fulfilled, and to the astonishment of both priest 
and people, when the Lamb was slain and offered up 
once for all, the veil of the temple was rent from top 
to bottom, and revealed to all alike the cherubim and 
mercy-seat ! And under this new dispensation of 
grace, and not of works of the law, the shadows that 
hung along the vale of time flew away, and the " Sun 
of righteousness arose with healing in his wings," 
while now to the Gentile with the Jew was Christ 



36 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

preached, as the only true sacrifice for sin, and they 
were required to renounce their dependence upon their 
own accustomed sacrifices, and to transfer it to his 
death and mediation. And as he is set forth as a 
propitiation " through faith in his blood," and as all 
their expiatory offerings were trusted in as a means 
of propitiation, so now the same kind of faith, a faith of 
reliance and not of mere assent, to the truth of all this 
which had come to pass, must be the kind in exercise. 
Each must sacrifice for himself upon the altar of his 
own heart, ever looking up to the Author and Finisher 
of faith ; and now that the Urim and Thummim, the 
golden censer and bowl, are found lying scattered at 
the foot of the cross, human trust must centre in 
Him who thus hath brought in a better covenant. 
Hence all are invited " to come boldly to a throne of 
grace," made accessible by this one great sin-offering, 
and ask, believing that they shall receive. 

But, in the language of Art. 8, of our Church, " the 
condition of man, after the fall of Adam, is such that 
he cannot turn and prepare himself, by his own natu- 
ral strength and works, to faith, and calling upon God ; 
wherefore we have no power to do good works, pleasant 
and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by 
Christ preventing us, that we may have a good will, 
and working with us when we have that good will." 
The assent to the truths of revelation may exist from 
the earliest period of attention to them, and God, from 
his good pleasure in desiring our happiness, ever work- 
ing in us and with us, the grace to believe confidingly 
in the merit of the atonement will never be withheld, 
and without wilful indifference or neglect must result 
in holiness. Upon all who come into existence there 



PRACTICAL, RELYING, OR SAVING FAITH. 37 

is cast a ray of heavenly light, and that light goes 
with them when they rise up or sit down, when they 
mingle with their fellow-men or retire to meditate, 
and fails not faithfully to lend its aid in exhibiting 
the way to God. And as our first parents, when in 
the garden of Eden, had the free exercise of their will 
in obeying or disobeying the command given, and as 
even the angels who fell from their first estate acted 
with free impulse in their hostility to the throne of 
God, so also we, having had bestowed upon us the 
same freedom in the use of our wills, can never, under 
the present law of rational being, look for a positive 
enforcement of the mere good pleasure of the Creator 
in desiring our salvation. God's tender mercies are 
no less now than in times of old, nor are they greater. 
They have always been infinite, and can admit of 
neither increase or diminution. The same love which 
was manifested by the great Architect of the universe 
when " the morning stars sang together, and all the 
sons of God shouted for joy/' is yet familiar to the 
heavens and the earth, and cannot be diminished. 
There is therefore light enough given to all to enable 
them to accept the truth, and, if they desire it, grace 
enough also to lead to the knowledge (or experience) 
of that truth. That is to say, the unresisted, though 
by no means irresistible, grace of God will, from the 
time reason first dawns to the end of life, be so con- 
tinually administered as to enable all to acquire 
purity of mind and heart, and come into that intimate 
union with the pure Spirit of the unseen world which 
Christ, the sacrifice for sin and purchaser of this 
glorious hope, perpetually enjoys. But resisting this 
grace, and even if admitting the truth of the gospel, 



88 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

yet going no further, the benefits of redemption, how 
much soever they may secure to the living, even if 
disobedient, without volition upon their part, as a 
great light must shine far and near, cannot bring 
about a union with Christ ; and the only prospect held 
out to the believer is that of being united to the 
author of evil — a union which for intimacy is as com- 
plete as that of the pure and happy with the Author 
of all good : the one kind of union being the fellow- 
ship of hell, the other the fellowship of heaven. For 
" he that believe th shall be saved, but he that believ- 
eth not shall be damned." 

Nor is there any discrimination in the grace of 
God, so as to assist one and pass by another ; but the 
fountain is as large as the universe, and its streams 
are accessible to all. Judging from merely outward 
appearances, we might be led to suppose that God was 
a respecter of persons in bestowing his blessings upon 
some to the denial of others ; or, from the merely 
visible operations of his Spirit, we might be inclined 
to judge severely of its work of mercy; but a mo- 
ment's reflection upon the very character of God is 
sufficient to repel the idea of love to one to the ne- 
glect of another. It is not perhaps manifest from any- 
thing we see with the outward eye that the Spirit 
strives with every soul alike: but upon the great and 
eternal principles, which we should ever keep in view 
while studying the counsels of God, the principles of 
infinite mercy and love, of wisdom and power, it is 
impossible to conclude otherwise than that all the in- 
fluences which Heaven can bring to bear upon the 
conscience are exercised, and this so long as man is a 
probationer for eternity. For, according to the senti- 



PRACTICAL, BELYING, OR SAVING FAITH. 89 

xnent of the late Dr. Olin, " a thousand invisible cords 
are constantly reaching out from the throne of God 
to the hearts of men, and these are as strong as they 
can possibly be, with man's nature as it is." With 
wilful disobedience these ties cannot last, and one cord 
after another failing, the prisoner of love finally breaks 
away, and is irretrievably ensnared by the great ad- 
versary of souls. How thrilling a contest is this, kept 
up for the salvation or ruin of man, from the cradle 
to the grave ; and how great the discomfiture of Love 
when it has touchingly to exclaim, " What more could 
I have done to my vineyard than that I have done?" 
Yes, when the whirlwind and the storm hath ruth- 
lessly stripped the tree of its branches, wasted its 
strength, and laid it in the dust, if there be but life 
enough in it to bud, it may revive again, and send 
out new foliage and fruit. So, as long as there re- 
mains a gleam of hope that the sinner will yield to 
the overtures of grace will Divine Goodness cherish 
him, and only when all hope has fled will darkness 
gather around his spiritual vision, thickening until it 
becomes the gloom of endless night. 

We affirm that it is necessary to have a practical 
or relying faith ; and, as was stated in the previous 
chapter, the faith of assent also. These two should 
be kept distinct, yet united ; and whilst one, the as- 
senting or intellectual belief, prepares the way by con- 
sidering the feasibility of the gospel plan, and the 
harmony of the word of God, thus securing a better 
foundation for faith to build upon — the other, the faith 
that saves, follows with all its in tenser vigour, light, 
and warmth, drawing the soul up the shining path, 
" that grows brighter and brighter until the perfect 



40 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

day." For, disuniting them, the sinner might be led 
to trust without properly understanding in what he 
trusted, or to expect salvation in Christ without re- 
pentance, and " fruits meet for repentance," and hence 
presumptuously die in his sins. 

Faith requires the believer to be brought into that 
state in which by exercising it he recognises the sys- 
tem of salvation in all its parts, and unless he is able 
to see the love of God manifested in the redemption 
of man by the gift of his Son, the mediatorial nature 
of this offering for sin, the weakness of humanity 
even in coming to God through Christ, he cannot feel 
the necessity of relying upon the merits of the atone- 
ment by the help of the Holy Spirit, and hence is not 
in the way to heaven. " Christian faith," then, as 
the clear expounder, Wesley, says, " is not only an 
assent to the whole gospel of Christ, but also a full 
reliance on the blood of Christ ; a trust in the merits 
of his life, death, and resurrection ; a recumbency upon 
him as our atonement and our life, as given for us, 
and living in us. It is a sure confidence which a man 
hath in God, that through the merits of Christ his 
sins are forgiven, and he reconciled to the favour of 
God ; and, in consequence hereof, a closing with him, 
and cleaving to him, as our 'wisdom, righteousness, 
sanctification, and redemption;' or, in other words, 
our salvation." 

But is it possible for all thus to apprehend their 
moral condition — for the young to see themselves 
so guilty, on account of offending against God, as to 
lead them to fly to Christ for help, when perhaps 
they, having only entered the threshold of life, are 
comparatively of pure morals and untainted minds — 



PRACTICAL, RELYING, OR SAVING FAITH. 41 

for them to see such impurity and vileness in them- 
selves as to induce them to come and sacrifice before 
Heaven, and, with "strong crying and tears," beseech 
God, for the sake of Christ, to have mercy on them, 
" miserable sinners ?" Now the degree of guilt real- 
ized by every one will bear some degree of proportion 
to its enormity, allowing for difference in the natural 
disposition or organic structure of the mind, and al- 
though all may not feel their transgressions to be the 
same in amount, and one may have h more lively 
sense of the terror of the law than another, or a more 
intense desire for happiness, there must, notwithstand- 
ing, be a conviction of danger and duty sufficient to 
drive them in their extremity to look for succour; 
and when informed that there is a sacrifice for sin, 
that God has become reconciled to man by the death 
of his Son, that he is now the great High-Priest in the 
heavens, ever interceding for all, and that "whosoever 
will " may come to God by him, obtain forgiveness of 
sins, a pure heart and mind, with " grace to help in 
time of need "—to force them to come as one fleeing 
impending ruin, and humbly and earnestly sue for 
peace, for power, for life, trusting in the sufficiency of 
the sacrifice once made, and made for all time. 

Now, can the tender in years pass through these 
stages of fear, hope, and trust, and, like the deeply 
guilty, fly to Christ? Believing in God practically 
implies that there must be this trust in the means 
afforded for obtaining eternal life ; and as early as 
the child can so believe, thus early is he able to pur- 
sue the course marked out for the old in sin, and 
coming in this way he finds justification and the bless- 
ings of religion. The conduct of one, however, in ap- 



42 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

plying to God for salvation must never be a rule 
for another, so far as particulars are concerned ; but 
there must in all cases be some guilt felt before there 
is a sense of danger ; some way seen in which to pro- 
ceed ; some hell to be shunned and heaven gained, 
before a desire to avoid the one and reach the other 
is entertained ; some help greater than human to 
which to fly, and some secret persuasion as to what it 
is and where it is, before the soul can rest upon this 
plan of assistance. 

The child, with outstretched hands, flies to its pa- 
rent to escape danger ; and though the fact of its 
being thus able to believe that safety may be secured 
by flight is no evidence of capacity to see the evil of 
sin, yet as early as it can possibly know it violates 
the least commandment it is placed in the same 
dilemma as those of riper years. But it would be 
impossible for such to feel all that weight of guilt 
which would be felt by one who had been a sinner for 
years, though it might feel enough to believe there 
was danger of losing all that the greatest offender 
could lose, however much it might fail to apprehend 
all the punishment such was escaping. Were it other- 
wise there would be a case of sin without any means 
of pardon, a mind capable of being at open variance 
with God with no provision for relief. Therefore he 
who sins may come to Christ, and the grace of God 
will be so administered as to enlighten the under- 
standing and point upwards to the mercy-seat and the 
atonement, saying in the ear, with a voice though 
" still and small/' yet sufficiently audible to be un- 
derstood, " Whosoever will, let him take of the water 
of life freely." 



PRACTICAL, RELYING, OR SAVING FAITH. 43 

" Ho ! every one that thirsts, draw nigh : 

; T is God invites the fallen race : 
Mercy and free salvation buy, — 

Buy wine, and milk, and gospel grace. 

" Come to the living waters, come ! 

Sinners, obey your Maker's call; 
Return, ye weary wanderers, home, 

And find his grace is free for all." 

It is impossible to fix the age at which childhood 
can be saved by repentance and faith ; but if assent 
to the mode of salvation is necessary, thereby imply- 
ing a reasonable comprehension of its propriety, then 
there must be some degree of discretion in the subject 
at the time of exercising practical faith. Some chil- 
dren reach this period in life sooner than others ; but 
the capacity to sin must succeed, or at least be con- 
temporaneous with discretion, as it enables the mind 
to believe and be saved by the time guilt is contracted. 
Hence all who can sin can repent and believe the gos- 
pel ; thus exhibiting the wisdom and beauty of the 
plan of salvation — it meeting all cases, at all times, 
and under all circumstances of life. 

We have observed that " faith is the gift of God," 
and not the property of man ; that "we are saved by 
grace, through faith, and that not of ourselves ;" and 
that there is a secret power " that worketh in us to 
will and to do of his good pleasure ;" thus apparently 
divesting man of any agency in his salvation. And 
yet there is a command " to repent and believe," or 
be lost. How is this seeming contradiction to be 
reconciled ? The prophets and holy men of old are 
often said, in Scripture, to have been moved by the 
Holy Ghost, to have been led by the Spirit, strengthened 
by the Spirit — with many similar expressions. Thus 



44 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

the Spirit moved upon Jonah to go to Nineveh to 
preach repentance and faith, but unfortunately the 
evil spirit worked in him a desire not to go, and he 
disobeyed for a while. Paul was moved by the Spirit 
to go to Jerusalem, whatever might befall him there, 
and he replied he was willing to go. Lot and his 
wife were urged to fly from Sodom, and they reluc- 
tantly left ; she, however, being overcome by an op- 
posing power, looked back, and was punished. So all 
the pious of the earth concerning whom anything is 
recorded have shown themselves moved upon by the 
good and by the evil spirit, leaving them to yield to 
the one or the other, as their wills were inclined. If 
man will believe and obey, there is enough of influ- 
ence emanating from the Holy Spirit, the spring of 
life, to aid and incite him to accept and obey the gos- 
pel ; but if he refuses, preferring the incitements to 
evil, he cannot obtain the rest of the obedient. God 
doubtless moves upon every soul by a continual affla- 
tus — moves upon it in as powerful a manner as possi- 
ble ; but unless there is a cooperation with the divine 
Spirit in this work, it must fail to be renovated and 
saved. But if there is a cooperation the agent of evil 
is foiled, loses ground ; and if man perseveres his 
strength will be increased, until holiness rewards his 
effort at faith and obedience. Unless it appears that 
all in whom God " worketh to will and to do of his 
good pleasure n are saved, the energy exerted some- 
times fails of success. If it be an agency so control- 
ling as to make obedience involuntary, none could be 
lost under its influence; if otherwise, and obedience 
is taken to be voluntary, then some may be saved 
and others lost, according to the conduct. But the 



PRACTICAL, RELYING, OR SAVING FAITH. 45 

Scriptures do not hesitate to suggest that but few are 
saved, and at the same time enjoins all who heard 
the declaration to strive, lest any should fail to enter 
into the celestial city. Hence though every one, 
through the mercy of God, has a constant light 
thrown around him throughout life, a genial ray 
ever ready to warm the heart and fructify all good 
seed sown therein, yet every one is not reclaimed; 
but, alas, it is to be feared that a large proportion of 
men are finally lost. 

Were there no evil power at work in the heart — if 
the same enemy of human happiness, who so success- 
fully influenced our first parents, with all the affini- 
ties since produced from corrupt natures, were not 
still alive, it might be the case that a constant illu- 
mination of the Holy Spirit, and the effort otherwise 
put forth by divine Love to lead the sinner to eternal 
felicities, would invariably succeed ; but the reverse 
being true, the lamentable result is as we have stated 
it to be. 

The Creator being omnipotent, it is sometimes 
asked why he suffers the influences brought to bear 
on the heart, in the great business of salvation, to be 
overborne by the adversary of souls, and beholds his 
creatures, after years of suffering and intensest strife, 
sink into the deep gloom of endless ruin ? But a simi- 
lar question might be asked and also answered in the 
case of our first parents. To be such a specimen of 
creation as man was designed to prove — to be raised 
above the brute, to be the lordling over the earth, over 
animate and inanimate matter — seemed to require 
a degree of intelligence in him superior to that en- 
joyed by all below him in the scale of being, and such 



46 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

intelligence could not be imparted by the eternal Mind 
in the most minute degree without carrying with it 
the power and privilege of exercising that active prin- 
ciple. This is illustrated in at least two instances in 
creation, the first being one wherein more dignity, 
but the same freedom, was combined, in order to 
qualify the subjects for their elevated sphere of duty, 
namely, in the case of the angels and of our first pa- 
rents. To enable the former to occupy their higher 
positions about the throne of God, they required supe- 
rior wisdom and power, and the free exercise of the 
will. Hence, as we are assured, whilst a portion of 
these heavenly intelligences continued in the free and 
happy exercise of this essential ingredient of their 
spiritual natures, others revolted against the authority 
of God, and were hurled from their blessed abodes 
into the abyss of woe : — 

" Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace 
And rest can never dwell — hope never comes, 
That comes to all." 

And the proof is by no means less convincing, that 
whilst our first parents were enjoying the free exer- 
cise of the degree of mental energy necessarily con- 
ferred, in order to fit them for an earthly paradise, 
the Tempter succeeded in blinding their understand- 
ings and involving them in ruin. From what we 
know, therefore, of the action of the mind, it, to be 
mind at all, must be derived immediately from the 
great Source of thought, and naturally and invaria- 
bly brings with it the essential requisites of action, 
energy, potver, and freedom. So that, wherever this 
spark of ethereal origin is seen, however it rises or 
sinks, whatever be the changes it undergoes — in a 



PRACTICAL, RELYING, OR SAVING FAITH. 47 

word, while it exists it is of free, independent motion, 
controlled only by counterpoises to action, whether 
these be derived from outward or inward objects, from 
above or beneath, whether from heaven or hell. In 
its pure state it was moved by the power of darkness, 
as in Eden, in heaven ; and as the first-born still 
strike their harps in glory, happy in their allegiance 
to the throne of God, the race of erring man may 
recover from their overthrow, and join that holy 
throng. 

We must, therefore, take the mind as we find it, 
and not consider it as it might be. In this manner 
the gospel proceeds, and, now that man has fallen, 
Christ says unto him, in comprehensive and persua- 
sive terms, " Come unto me, all ye that are weary and 
heavy-laden, and I will give you rest ;" thus inviting 
all to come in the exercise of a sound discretion, and 
he will insure their happiness. All, therefore, Jew 
and Gentile, young and old, rich and poor together — 
all who have sinned may come to the gospel-feast and 
be delivered from guilt and spiritual blindness. But at 
the same time it should be remembered, that by re- 
peated sinnings the understanding becomes darkened, 
and each moment of delay but renders the task of seek- 
ing God more difficult. To counteract the saving in- 
fluence of divine light, Satan resorts to the method of 
tempting man to disobedience, to have no faith in God, 
" to believe a lie, that he may be damned." If, there- 
fore, the condition of the sinner becomes worse and 
worse by exercising unbelief, will not the period arrive 
when the light from on high will be felt no more in the 
soul? Or will the Spirit continue to strive until the 
end of life, enabling all to turn and seek salvation at 



48 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

their own pleasure? Various are the opinions enter- 
tained in respect to this important inquiry : some be- 
lieving that the sinner may repent whenever he 
chooses ; others, that neglect may fix his doom pre- 
vious to dissolution. " Secret things belong unto 
God," and while we should dwell upon such a subject 
with the utmost reverence and caution, yet as a word 
spoken in season may tend to relieve the apprehen- 
sion, it is the duty of every one to give utterance to 
whatever thought may throw light upon it. After 
this manner has Dr. Clarke relieved the minds of many 
serious persons by his suggestion concerning the sin 
against the Holy Ghost, as inserted in his Commen- 
tary in connexion with that subject. 

" My Spirit shall not always strive with man," is a 
declaration of Scripture, intimating that there is an 
end to its work on the soul. In view of the freedom 
of the will, so long as the mind has the benefit of 
divine light and energy, we may, while that light is 
given, consider the invitation to seek pardon as always 
existing ; but admitting that God has the ability and 
right to withdraw his Spirit whenever he will, with 
the departure of that divine agent the soul would be 
left surrounded by impenetrable gloom. The power 
to withdraw his Spirit cannot be denied ; and the only 
question is whether that power is exercised in the ex- 
perience of any? From the history of a few, incidents 
have been recited indicative of the impression that 
their doom was sealed while this side of eternity. 
We read of these remarkable cases, and, without being 
fully convinced of their being based upon realities, 
shudder at the awful thought — doubling our diligence 
lest it should be our unhappy lot. But though such 



PRACTICAL, RELYING, OR SAVING FAITH. 49 

details come to us with much authenticity, yet man- 
kind are very much divided upon the subject, while a 
majority perhaps are of the opinion that probation 
only terminates with life ; and, as in the language of 
Dr. Watts, that, 

" While the lamp holds out to burn, 
The vilest sinner may return." 

We therefore incline to the belief, that light from 
Heaven continually flows upon man ; and that those 
who have seriously concluded their day of grace was 
past, could only have realized the truth that such 
w r as the accumulation of guilt, or so benumbing the 
influence of evil over their soul — such the dark clouds 
sin had thrown around them, intercepting the light, 
that expectation of mercy ceased ; and as when in a 
day of clouds the sun shines but faintly on all beneath 
them, though brightly to others beyond their range, 
such too hastily decide that no sun shines for them, 
but that universal gloom pervades the heavens. 
Hence, although it be true that there must be a day 
of judgment, of rewards and punishments — a period 
deciding the doom of the living — that life must termi- 
nate, probation end; that the Spirit cannot strive 
with the miserable after judgment, as that would be 
to alter their state — nor between the grave and the 
day of account, as there is no " voice " nor " device " 
there ; still, as the sun-light falls alike upon the tombs 
of the good and the evil, so the Spirit illumines the 
minds of all who pass the vestibule of life, and shines 
on, as one by one, in long and constant procession, 
the sons of Adam retire through the gateway of death. 
There is a period to probation — must be, in order to 
retribution ; but the conviction is very general that, 

3 



50 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

until the sun of life sets may the horizon await the 
gilding of his beams. The Saviour is represented as 
" standing all the day long," inviting sinners to come 
and be saved ; — this day mentioned we understand to 
mean the term of natural life; that faith should there- 
fore die when hope expires, and she is wont to make 
the grave her funeral pyre. 



CHAPTEE IV. 

UNITY OF FAITH. 

The salvation of the soul is of so great importance 
that God has not been willing to leave anything un- 
done that might influence men to come to a saving 
knowledge of him. Therefore precept upon precept 
has been given for the good government of their 
lives, and every inducement held out for the wise im- 
provement of the term of their probation. There 
being but one true and living God, among the many 
false gods men have set up and worshipped, it was 
deemed advisable to teach the doctrine of " one Lord " 
and "one faith." And hence St. Paul, in writing to 
one of the Churches, after urging them to keep the 
unity of the Spirit, intimates a " unity of faith," and 
of the knowledge of the Son of God, as the result of 
all their patience, long-suffering, and forbearance. 

Let us, therefore, improve the space allotted to this 
chapter by inquiring further into the nature of this 
" one faith ;" and consider — 

1. The object to be believed. Though God has for 
thousands of years declared himself to be the true 



UNITY OF FAITH. 51 

God, a vast portion of mankind have always wor- 
shipped stocks and stones, or adored the luminaries 
of heaven as proper objects of trust. The heart of 
man has ever been slow to recognise in God the true 
Sovereign of the universe, and the present generations 
seem to improve but little upon the conduct of their 
predecessors. One fourth of the human race even 
now worship idols, to say nothing of the vast multi- 
tudes who, though bearing the name of Christians, 
are, it is to be feared, practical atheists. But even 
many of those who believe in God do not exercise 
faith in his Son as the Eedeemer of the world. Some 
of this number, as the Jews, still look for the coming 
of Christ, and hence put themselves beyond the reach 
of sound doctrine. And when men, inhabiting evan- 
gelized portions of the globe, are reduced to the true 
test of religious confidence, it often turns out that 
quite a number believe in their own righteousness as 
being sufficient for salvation. Thus, for one reason 
or another, a vast portion of mankind fall short of 
the exercise of any degree of genuine faith, and hence 
are debarred the light of the gospel, and, from the 
most humane construction that can be put upon their 
cases, die unregenerate though not unredeemed. The 
true object of faith being so clearly set forth in the 
Scriptures, it would at first sight appear that no man 
could mistake it, or fail to prove obedient to the heav- 
enly calling. The mandate, " believe in God," was 
not invalidated by the newer command to have faith 
also in Christ. The fact that three persons dwell in 
one God, all equally worthy of homage and service, 
could never limit faith exclusively to any particular 
person of the Trinity ; but, as the Saviour once inti- 



52 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

mated, it is proper to believe in both the Father and 
the Son. It does not destroy the unity of faith to 
apply it to any number of objects, provided they be 
resolvable into one. So, believing in Christ is but 
believing in God ; and however full the belief in the 
former, it only serves to enlarge and strengthen faith 
in the latter. And no man can be truly said to be- 
lieve in God unless he have faith also in the Son and 
Holy Ghost. 

Unity of faith is therefore complete though attached 
to the several persons in the adorable Trinity ; and it 
is but one faith exercised in one Lord — the Jehovah 
of the Jew. But it may be replied, that since the 
Jews believe in God and a Christ yet to come, and the 
three persons constitute the one Lord, their faith em- 
braces each of them, and they are free from maledic- 
tion. This can only be answered by denying to them 
a true faith until they come to credit the mission of 
the Redeemer ; for if they believe rightly in the word 
of God they would believe all he hath spoken, and in 
so doing also in the advent of the Messiah. For the 
fact of his appearing is as clearly demonstrated as any 
one in their religious code ; and the same faith that 
could inspire confidence in God should be sufficient to 
lead their mind into a like trust in the authority and 
power of Jesus Christ. They have their own divine 
records by mere revelation and traditionary security, 
and the fulfilment of the prophecy of the coming of 
Christ has been as clearly developed, in their own 
more immediate day, as any token of infinite power 
in the times of old. They were, according to their 
own confessions, in a state of expectation when Christ 
made his appearance, and from being the custodians 



UNITY OF FAITH. 53 

of the oracles testifying to this event, and from their 
constant and careful search therein to learn the par- 
ticulars of his advent, other nations surrounding them 
were, if not altogether, at least more fully apprised 
of the singular mode of illustrating these long-writ- 
ten prophecies, and also fell into the same kind of 
excitement as the period drew near. They were then 
the first to draw attention to the Messiah's coming, 
and stood nearest when he was crucified ; they were 
eye-witnesses of that terrible scene from beginning to 
end, and yet, strange to relate, their faith attaches not 
to him, but assumptively clings to the God of Abra- 
ham, Isaac, and Jacob ! 

2. The unity of faith may be considered in relation 
to the person exercising it. Even admitting that 
mankind firmly believe the Scriptures, and therefore 
consent to the guidance of Christ into all truth, many 
are nevertheless guilty of the sin of either dividing 
their faith between Christ and themselves or some 
other object ; or they do not believe with constancy, 
but in times of temptation fall away, or so mingle 
faith with incongruous or disorganizing elements as 
to render futile all efforts at coming savingly to Christ. 
And, (1.) They divide their faith between Christ and 
themselves or some other object — only a part thereof 
is reserved for the Saviour, and that of course proves 
insufficient for the purpose of salvation. The com- 
mand is plainly set down that they must believe on 
Christ as they do on the Father ; that is, with " all 
their soul, their mind, and strength," yet a large pro- 
portion of their confidence is devoted to their own 
wisdom, or power, or goodness. Thus they at once 
destroy that unity of faith which ought to exist as 



54 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

being wholly set upon Christ, who alone redeemeth 
from death. Or it may chance that they put their 
trust in external objects, and look for help and com- 
fort from them conjointly with such assistance as the 
Saviour may render. " Some trust in horses, and 
some in chariots," saith David; "but I will put my 
trust in the Lord." Others divide their hopes and 
confidence between Christ and the friendship of the 
world ; but misfortune or death soon drives them from 
such vain illusions, and they see that Christ is all in 
all. But unity of faith being broken, the danger is 
perilous that the soul may never more become united 
to the great Head of the Church. (2.) They do not 
believe with constancy, but in times of temptation 
" fall away." This is a common occurrence, and 
scarcely a professor can be found who has not been 
tempted to give back, and return to the world. Their 
faith is of the right kind, for it is " in God and in 
Jesus Christ his Son ;" but they suffer themselves to 
be moved from their steadfastness, withdraw their 
confidence, and without scarcely knowing to what 
their faith is transferred, find their pious comforts 
fast departing, until time shows them the breach that 
has been made in their strong-holds. They can only 
be repaired by again believing more fully in Christ, 
and repenting of the evil committed in ever forsaking 
him. Or, (3.) They may so mix faith with distinct and 
disorganizing elements as to render futile all efforts 
at coming savingly to Christ. They may never have 
had true faith; but approaching very closely to it, 
have spent their life almost in sight of the cross ; or, 
supposing they once " tasted of the good word of God," 
they suffer some darling sin to lie within the secret 



UNITY OF FAITH. 55 

recesses of their bosom, not entirely easting it out, and 
so a flame of discord forever burns within, dimming 
or destroying the lustre of heavenly light, and greatly 
deranging the work of faith. These obnoxious ele- 
ments are numberless, both within and without, and 
no place affords safety but at the foot of the cross. 
And while these baneful influences are peculiar to 
different men, they at the same time so fill all the 
ways of life as to prove a general as well as special 
evil, and in some sense account for the ruin of the mill- 
ions who are not strangers to the grace of the gospel. 
But notwithstanding the truth of the assertion 
which we have already made, that a diversity of ob- 
jects does not destroy the unity of faith, provided 
they be all resolvable into one, it must not there- 
fore be inferred that any set or order of objects can 
at pleasure be arrayed against another set in which 
it is proper to believe. This can never be tolerated 
by the unity of faith, unless where the untrue object 
is only one of negative belief, leaving the true jand 
genuine in possession of the positive or active persua- 
sion. Thus it is right to believe in God, and right 
also to believe in the existence of Satan : that the 
one being is holy, just, and good; the other just the 
reverse. The belief may be complete in Christ and 
equally so in the great adversary of souls. It would 
be altogether different, however, were the belief in 
Christ to be partially transferred to the enemy as a 
component part of the one great idea of human hope, 
trusting in both alike — " serving both God and Mam- 
mon." So long as the elements of good and evil are 
kept distinct and separate, the belief may run through 
any number of instances without destroying its unity 



56 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

or efficacy. Were we in like manner to allow the 
union of Christ's righteousness and that supposed to 
be our own, and expect to realize from them jointly a 
renewed nature, we should soon find that these objects 
did not harmonize and work together, and be con- 
strained to put sole trust in Him who alone is right- 
eous, and on whom alone man can rely for happiness. 
Faith in Christ accords precisely with human good ; 
and faith in everything else, when used antagonistic- 
ally, is forced to result in disappointment. 

From certain indications to be found in the Scrip- 
tures it is apprehended that at some future time the 
different nations shall come to " see eye to eye " in 
reference to the great object of faith. At present a 
large proportion of them are sunk in heathenish 
gloom — no gospel light having as yet penetrated 
their dark domains ; but in the course of Providence 
it is to be expected they will all awake from their 
slumbers, and the praises of God be heard chanted 
from every hill-top and valley inhabited by man. For 

" The Law and Prophets all foretold 

That Christ should die and leave the grave ; 

Gather the world into his fold, 
The Church of Jews and Gentiles save. 

" Yet by the power of darkness bound, 
The nations still are wrapt in night ; 

They never heard the joyful sound, 
They never saw the gospel light. " 

But what is it to see eye to eye in matters of faith? 
Shall every one come to believe in Christ to the same 
extent? or shall the great mass of believers consti- 
tute only one visible Church ? or shall these last gen- 
erations of deserters from idolatry and adherents to 
Christianity include all the dwellers upon earth ? 



UNITY OF FAITH. 57 

Let us look at these inquiries in their order. The 
human mind must be greatly altered in its constitu- 
ents previous to that period, if it is to be concluded 
that the operations of the Spirit will produce the very 
same results in all cases of individual experience. 
For now it is understood to be quite different, and no 
two persons are found perfectly to accord in their feel- 
ings or views. And as the mind has as yet lost none 
of its original properties, the presumption is that it 
will retain the same organization till the end of time. 
We show in other places that religion is not designed 
to destroy the native organization of the mind, but 
only to renovate and make it more exalted in its aims 
and enjoyments. Eaised to be meet for an inherit- 
ance incorruptible, it looks for nothing more from the 
influence of divine grace, and nothing more should be 
expected. There will be diversity of tastes and feel- 
ing as long as the human constitution remains the 
same, aided ever as now by diversity of local circum- 
stance. We might sooner expect to see the great 
marks of difference in the colour of the races altered 
in opposition to every influence of caste or climate, 
than that the mental or moral organization of differ- 
ent men should be brought to conform to the same 
rule of opinion or sentiment. It is not, then, in this 
light we are to expect nations to see eye to eye. 

But shall not the great mass of believers in Christ 
constitute only one visible Church? In one sense this 
is true, but there is a sense in which it is highly 
doubtful. To consider the whole body of Christians 
— evangelical Christians wherever to be found scat- 
tered over the face of the earth at this or any other 
day— as constituting the true Church of Christ is very 

3* 



58 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

proper, and that is the true definition of the term ; 
but to go further and declare it certain that each and 
all of this vast body of believers remaining and yet 
to remain on the earth will at last come into an or- 
ganized body of the faithful, under any one separate 
and distinct code of views as well as morals, is to tax 
credulity too far. Were there any rigid moral ne- 
cessity for such a state of society it might very 
reasonably be anticipated, not only by bigots, but 
even by philanthropists ; but there being no need for 
such uniformity and conformity, the presumption is 
very clear it can never take place. That there will be 
a great body of true believers filling the earth — that 
is to say, a portion out of every nation and kindred, 
tongue, and people, to be known as true disciples, and 
that these shall compose the Church militant — is the 
plainer teaching of the Bible; and being the most 
rational of any, none should presume to gainsay it. 
Indeed, were it to turn out otherwise, and all were to 
adopt the same creed in morals, and not in respect to 
the ordinary avocations and duties of life as being 
equally feasible and proper, it should be the cause of 
alarm to the public mind that corruption had most 
probably coerced sentiment into one common channel, 
and power silenced the exhibition of independent 
thought. 

The teaching of our Church upon this subject is in 
accordance with such enlarged and charitable construc- 
tion, and cannot be too often repeated. Her thirteenth 
canon declares that " the visible Church of Christ is 
a congregation of faithful men, in which the pure 
word of God is preached, and the sacraments duly 
administered according to Christ's ordinance in all 



UNITY OF FAITH. 59 

those things that of necessity are requisite to the 
same." 

Nor is it intended that the last generations of de- 
serters from idolatry and adherents of Christianity 
shall include all the dwellers upon earth at the time 
inhabiting pagan lands. The millennium, or thou- 
sand years of peace, can exist without such an issue. 
Idolatrous nations as such will doubtless feel the 
genial and rectifying influence of religion operating 
upon them, so as to contrast fairly the nature of the 
living God with their dumb idols, and out of the great 
civil and moral darkness will spring up a better order 
of things ; yet it may not after all extend so far as 
to Christianize the portions of the earth thus labour- 
ing under the yoke of spiritual bondage. Many will 
doubtlessly still cling to their idols, set up in the heart 
after being deprived of their worship as national 
divinities, and thus never be strictly numbered with 
that body of Christ's followers designating the true 
and only Church. It may be true that all will come 
" to know the Lord, from the least to the greatest ;" 
but many never come to that intimate acquaintance 
with Christ which brings salvation. As nations, all 
the evangelized parts of the globe may now be said 
to know God in a fair Scriptural sense, in being in 
direct contrast with the customs and usages of idola- 
trous countries ; and were Christianity to be speedily 
or even gradually transplanted among them to the as 
speedy extirpation of their erroneous rites and cere- 
monies, it might be exclaimed, in reference to them 
as to us now, " They all knew the Lord from the least 
of them [as countries] to the greatest/' or the same 
if taken to mean from the youngest of their inhabit- 



60 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

ants to the oldest. From the great changes now going 
on in the world, in point of evangelization, the hope 
of the present generation may very correctly advert 
to the era when there shall not be left a solitary na- 
tion devoid of the gospel ; but when the three thou- 
sand dialects, now supposed to exist, shall each and 
all become familiarized with the name of Christ, and 
worshippers of every clime go in and out of their 
Christian temples with pious ascriptions of praise. 
It has been intimated that wars shall cease, and peace 
fill the borders of the earth. With the tide of Chris- 
tianity there will doubtless roll on that enlightened 
state of mind which will discover to the now barbar- 
ous or less enlightened nations the evil tendencies of 
war and bloodshed ; and such sentiments prevailing 
with the then known interdict set by Heaven upon ag- 
gression and wrong, there w r ill follow a universal de- 
sire for peace, and, in the language of Pope, 

"No more shall nation against nation rise, 
Nor ardent warriors meet with hateful eyes, 
Nor fields with gleaming steel be cover'd o'er ; 
The brazen trumpets kindle rage no more ; 
But useless lances into scythes shall bend, 
And the broad falchion in a plough-share end." 

There will, we suppose, continue to exist the same 
bickerings and petty jealousies so common, or at least 
to be seen among Christianized people in these days ; 
but so general will become the desire for friendship 
and union, that the major portion of each common- 
wealth will so order the public affairs as to avoid en- 
croachment upon foreign powers. And in this may 
there be said to exist, in the future, a time of peace 
realizable to the pious expectations of our own times, 



UNITY OF FAITH. 61 

and for which all should continue to strive with more 
than accustomed zeal and energy. To pray for its 
advent is well ; each sympathetic heart does so ; but 
there must be consentaneous action in sending on the 
wings of the wind the missives of heavenly wisdom 
and charity, until the whole lump is leavened by 
evangelic truth. 

In the last place, unity of faith tolerates a wide 
diversity of religious ceremonials, though this conclu- 
sion may be easily inferred from the foregoing obser- 
vations : yet as no little difference of opinion exists in 
this particular, it may not be unwise to give it a pass- 
ing notice. If ceremonials alone constituted religion, 
and religion were to overspread the earth in the man- 
ner described, there would be but one universal com- 
mune of saints in respect to their mode of worship ; 
the form then claiming the same attention, and occu- 
pying the same place in public estimation, that should 
in the reverse of the case be accorded to the true sys- 
tem of piety. Under such circumstances nations 
might with a degree of propriety be said to see alike, 
and be expected to adopt the same mode of religious 
worship. But inasmuch as ceremonials do not com- 
prise the whole, or, strictly speaking, any part of the 
system of salvation, the expectation of those must fail 
who suppose that unanimous consent is to be given to 
any set of dogmas, however cogently or fastidiously 
arranged ; however universally accredited by num- 
bers at any particular time, or however ancient in its 
origin or fame. We therefore say that no one Church 
should assume itself to be the grand nucleus about 
which all believers in Christ are to concentrate, and 
so fulfil the prophecy of " seeing eye to eye" in spirit- 



62 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

ual matters ; but the " unity of faith " must be looked 
for elsewhere, and in a very different particular. In- 
deed, it would be difficult for the most wise and ortho- 
doxical to trace their derivation so clearly from the 
days of the flood, or down the course of ages, to the 
present moment, as to tell where the truer germ of 
piety exists, as the lineal descent of all is undoubt- 
edly from Adam, and their spiritual birth from Jesus 
Christ Thus nobly descended in point of genealogy 
in the one case, and destiny in the other, no man will 
scarcely be found to relinquish his birthright either 
in the former instance or the latter, and go with any 
who may presumptuously claim to be guides. 

Therefore, " although/' says Mr. Wesley, " every 
follower of Christ is obliged, by the very nature of 
the Christian institution, to be a member of some par- 
ticular congregation or other— some Church, as it is 
usually termed — {which implies a particular manner 
of worshipping God; for 'two cannot walk together 
unless they be agreed') — yet none can be obliged, by 
any power on earth but that of his own conscience, to 
prefer this or that congregation to another, this or 
that particular manner of worship/' Human consent 
is therefore alone to govern in matters of religious 
externals ; and each man, impressed with a sense of 
his own wants and necessities, should associate him- 
self with that body of believers having a canon most 
compatible with his views. There will, therefore, 
never be any more precise unity of faith in the world 
than at present exists : for as now, so must thero 
ever remain the same Redeemer and the same cor- 
rupt heart by natural generation to need his atone- 
ment; and though as time passes on the nations will 



A LIVING FAITH AND A DEAD FAITH. 63 

more and more assimilate into an interesting brother- 
hood, and religious belief become much more general, 
or, as we have chosen to call it, universal, still the 
unity of the faith will remain the same, and at the 
last stand, as now, connected with its " one Lord and 
one baptism/' 1 



CHAPTEE V. 

A LIVING FAITH AND A DEAD FAITH. 

As signs are used to describe the changes occurring 
in the natural body, so are they employed to repre- 
sent the state of the spiritual body. And as there is 
nothing more distinct than life and death, these two 
expressions are very fitly used to show the condition 
of the soul in reference to its religious progress. But 
as " without faith it is impossible to please God," faith 
may be assumed as representing salvation, and the 
changes it may undergo as indicative of the particular 
state of the soul. 

1. The life of the natural body is shown by its 
activity. If this be wanting, there is a presumption 
of death. So in the spiritual body, unless there is 
energy producing a desire for the favour and service 
of God, it wants the first elements of life. But as in 
some bodies more animation is exhibited than in 
others, so it may be seen that faith is stronger in one 
than another, and productive of greater results. A 
mere assent to the gospel cannot impart vitality ; for 
as the animation of the mortal frame proceeds from 
the warm pulsations of the heart, so must the spiritual 



64 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

energy be supplied by the generous love of Christ 
" shed abroad in the soul by the Holy Ghost." But 
some may ask, Can it be known that faith exists? 
St. Paul suggests the method of self-examination as 
being proper in cases of uncertainty, and if it be seen 
that the soul exhibits no tokens of life, to rest not till 
that most desirable gift be supplied. 

2. There is another important condition of faith 
upon which its lasting vitality depends, and that is a 
state of growth. None expect to see the child remain 
stationary in growth and strength; but, on the con- 
trary, that he should improve in both these particulars. 
So in the case of the spiritual birth, the soul is not 
expected to slumber while time is rapidly passing, and 
the issues of eternal happiness are before it ; but to 
go on from strength to strength until a reasonable 
maturity fits it for the society of the blessed in heaven. 
The body, without nourishment and care, soon sickens 
and dies, and thus it is with the inner man ; there 
must be sound doctrine supplied, and every attention 
paid to its true advancement in knowledge, charity, 
good works, and every other attribute of human hap- 
piness, or the spiritual body will soon decay. Many, 
when almost dead, have, by assiduous attention, been 
restored to the circle of friendship or the duties of 
life. In like manner the loud reproof to the sleeper 
of " Awake, awake !" has, without question, caused 
many to arouse from their slumberings, and put on 
new beauty and strength. There is as natural a 
growth belonging to the principle of faith as to the 
existence of the body. When either is fostered, and 
duly exercised, there follows a gradual increase of 
strength. The body, however, having been limited 



A LIVING FAITH AND A DEAD FAITH. 65 

in its growth, at last attains its greatest perfection, 
while faith only ripens when the body fails. The 
greatest strength with which the physical man can 
clothe himself is small, while faith, like a grain of 
seed planted in the soul, at length becomes so great 
in power that the warring elements of time cannot 
destroy it : for though, like the proud oak, it may be 
bent to the earth as the whirlwind is sweeping by, it 
rebounds with greater might, and stands up the mon- 
arch of the forest still. 

Were we to bestow on faith as much attention as on 
the members of the body, the spiritual man would 
assume a dignity truly astonishing. The body is 
nurtured from infancy to old age, while the immortal 
part is left to pine and decay without proportionate 
concern. To a mere observer of human conduct, it 
would seem that men were cherishing their bodies in 
view of their immortality, to the neglect of their souls 
as being of short duration. At the first alarm of 
sickness how all seek the physician's skill, and when 
worn by disease how delicate the attention lavished 
upon them for their most trifling relief! But the 
spiritual man may lie at the gate, "full of putrefying 
sores," and no aid be afforded by its possessor in order 
to restore it to health and gladness ! The body goes 
pampered down to its native dust, whilst the faint and 
murmuring spirit is sent out upon its endless journey. 
We ought rather to attend to the requirements of the 
soul by " seeking first the kingdom of God and his 
righteousness," assured that all needful temporal 
blessings shall be added to us. 

But in opposition to the principle of an active and 
growing faith, we meet with the expression of dead 



66 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

faith, as indicating the reverse of that spiritual state 
to which all should aspire. Let us, therefore, briefly 
contemplate the subject of a lifeless faith. (1.) As to 
its inactivity from the beginning ; (2.) Once active 
and then falling into decay ; and, (3.) Faith in God 
and not in Christ the same, under certain circum- 
stances, as useless. Many in Christian lands possess 
some kind of faith, and yet never profit by its exer- 
cise. Some only assent to the gospel, others with 
apparent earnestness inquire into the system of re- 
demption; but neither attain a point at which the 
principles of faith are applied to the life and conver- 
sation, and they die without " coming to the knowledge 
of the truth as it is in Christ." Were these to apply 
any other persuasion, only as this of their religious 
trust, no benefit could ever accrue. They assent to 
many things in daily experience, but take care to 
found thereon instant or well-planned action, and so 
in good time see the fruits of their labour. They be- 
lieve that winter will come, closely succeeding the 
genial summer, and they provide themselves season- 
able comforts for that dreary and inclement period. 
Or they doubt not but that summer will again appear, 
succeeding the spring, and the fields are sown with 
care and haste, in order that at harvest- time the 
sheaves may fill their bosoms, and the song of joyful 
mirth resound within their borders. But not so with 
those who seemingly believe and yet lay not the truth 
to heart ; for the seasons come and go, continually short- 
ening their pilgrimage, but no preparation is made for 
the dark and fearful winter of death ; no good seed is 
laid in the heart from which to expect any yield of 
happiness after the time of planting is altogether 



A LIVING FAITH AND A BEAD FAITH. 67 

over. This kind of faith is dead and useless, and it 
is strange that rational men should evince such folly 
as to imagine that a principle, however active in its 
nature, when rightly used, should, when permitted to 
lie dormant, result in anything but final disappoint- 
ment. A belief that admits the historical events of 
ancient times, but which yet never turns them to any 
account in the government of the conduct, cannot 
be called active and useful ; for as it respects individ- 
ual action, such things may as well be discredited or 
unknown. And though the mere intellectual assent 
become so active and controlling to the thought and 
life as to impart a higher degree of interest in the 
use of faith as a principle, still the interest may be 
extended quite far and yet the heart remain cold and 
dead. It must be so entertained as to lead to a point 
where heat will be evolved. The snow on the obscure 
side of the mountain lies cold and inanimate ; but 
when the sun rises above the peaks and sheds his 
glowing rays upon it, the frozen dew-drop soon melts 
into tears of tenderness, and the mass of drapery 
everywhere speedily shows signs of life and action in 
the vapours that ascend and the trickling rills put 
in motion. In like manner the heart may border 
on the point of true feeling, but share none of the 
warming influences of the Holy Spirit, however long 
it thus remains. But set the thought in motion, 
" lay hold of eternal life," give the heart to Him who 
redeemeth, and the deadness departs, new life, and 
hope, and love, fill the soul, to remain, unless by un- 
faithfulness the sun withdraws his heat, and the frigid 
scenes of winter again settle down upon the once glow- 
ing and genial prospect. 



68 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

In the second particular, also, there are jnany who 
have to plead guilty before God. Perhaps it, might with 
truth be said that a large proportion of those who are 
once enlightened, and have really discerned something 
of the benefits of faith experimentally, leave their 
first love and walk only by sight. It will not do 
to think that the faith at first entertained as neces- 
sary to secure pardon will answer for the rest of life 
without increase. Each successive moment of life is 
as prolific of danger as the first, and salvation is not 
actually secured until the soul is beyond the reach of 
unbelief; and, like the vestal virgins, men must at- 
tend the fires lighted within the sanctuaries of their 
heart from the heavenly spark, as a moment's neglect 
will endanger their continuance to burn. Too many 
fill their lamps once in life, and then await the bride- 
groom's coming — finding upon his arrival, however, 
that " their lamps are gone out !" Too late then to 
go for oil to renew them, the door is shut, and the 
faint flicker once had, and the slight warmth once 
enjoyed, but serves the more to show the ruined soul 
the dreadfulness of that darkness enveloping it. 

Were it only necessary to obtain the forgiveness of 
sins, and then quietly and presumingly await the end, 
it might be of comparatively easy performance; but 
with the sincere and well-instructed the greater dread 
lies in the journey from the cross to the land of prom- 
ise. And such think justly of the dangers of the way; 
but the fear of evil, where it does not act as a pre- 
ventive to setting out, rather tends to quicken and 
render the progress more safe when once in the King's 
highway. All of life is a field of contest, and he who 
lays down his armour where the battle is ever raging 



A LIVING FAITH AND A DEAD FAITH. 69 

will be in as great danger as though he had no 
weapon at command. The onsets of Satan are con- 
stant, and the soul that hopes to glide gently and 
unapprehendingly along the way to heaven will at 
length discover the fatal mistake. St. Paul, in de- 
claring " he had kept the faith," did not mean to in- 
timate, to those succeeding him, that it was merely 
the faith that effected his pardon without addition or 
renovation ; on the contrary, " the great fight of afflic- 
tions " he endured required much more faith than 
was supplied to him at Damascus under the invoca- 
tion of Ananias. He needed faith according to the 
" day and trial " he suffered, and as faith comes from 
God, he failed not to furnish it according to his ear- 
nest desire ; and the apostle was therefore able to say, 
" I am ready to be offered up : henceforth there re- 
maineth for me a crown of life, which the righteous 
Judge will give me in that day." The same doctrine 
is maintained by St. James, when he declares " faith 
without works to be dead," knowing that the belief 
entertained at commencing the Christian career would 
never answer for all emergencies. Every moment 
must therefore have its measure of faith, as if the 
whole of life were divided into minute portions of duty 
and enjoyment, and yet capable of being combined at 
last into a complete history of religious experience. 
Faith is living and progressive in its nature, and 
must have constant exercise or it fails. And how 
singular, that a principle which is so calculated to re- 
produce itself in the very act of exercise, should be left 
to expire in the soul without a thought. The thrifty 
plant springs not up more quickly and buoyantly 
under the refreshing shower and the gardener's care, 



70 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

than does this germinating faith when applied to 
life. 

But, 3. Faith in God and not in Christ may, under 
circumstances, also be dead. It is to be feared that 
many of the unhappy spirits peopling the dominions 
of death, went hence convinced of the existence of 
God as the author of all things, and " the giver of 
every good and perfect gift." But with systematic 
knowledge of his divine government and superruling 
power, gathered from experience and his written word, 
they laid their schemes of life, and trained their minds 
as though there were no seed of corruption sown within 
their hearts, which must be eradicated or its even 
feeblest growth would prove eternal ruin. Thus swept 
on by the impulse of blind sophistry and zeal, the 
termination of their course would have been in oppo- 
sition to reason, had their end not been even worse 
than the beginning. But let us attend more espe- 
cially to the distinction to be sought between the case 
of those w T ho believe in God and not in Christ, because 
no visible means of doing so have been afforded. Vast 
numbers, as already observed, have no revelation of 
the divine will but such as is written on the conscience. 
Such, having never heard of Christ, are therefore left 
to follow the dictates of this inward monitor as an un- 
written law of self-government, and as the only one 
to which they are amenable. God has never left him- 
self without a witness of his existence and supreme 
authority ; and systems of religion, perpetually pre- 
vailing throughout all ages and portions of the earth, 
testify to the existence of a light forever burning in 
the human understanding, indicative of some higher 
and holier state of being than mankind ever assume. 



A LIVING FAITH AND A DEAD FAITH. 71 

Through the daily sacrifices and offerings of the most 
barbarous hordes, the unnumbered duties that crowd 
every avenue of nature's more distinctive features, as 
earth, air, and sea — the dread of evil and the hope 
of good — all proclaim a secret recognition of finite 
power and impure nature as to themselves, but of a 
supreme authority and a holy object somewhere in the 
universe. This principle of self-prostration before some 
unseen, unknown, yet sensibly existent Power, felt as 
by a breathing consciousness above, beneath, around 
the living — this secret emotion lying deep in the soul, 
which prompts with unerring certainty the invoca- 
tion in moments of trouble, fails not to declare, in 
language as plain as nature can use, that the Creator, 
in making man, has left the impress of his origin 
upon him. The finger of God has therefore been felt 
moving upon the tablets of every heart, in fashioning 
the code of duty and trust, and whether read or not 
it gives evidence of its existence. How, then, is it 
with all those who have a law written in their mem- 
bers, but know nothing of Christ? Allowing that 
they have faith in God, will that be sufficient to save 
them from the wrath to come, or will a perfect obe- 
dience to this teaching enable them to meet with 
favour ? The apostle, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, 
says, "Without faith it is impossible to please God: 
for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and 
that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." 
And, says Chillingworth, "It is hereby plainly inti- 
mated that this is the summum quod sic — the lowest 
degree of faith wherewith, in men capable of faith, 
God will be pleased, where means of using higher are 
deficient." But, not resting here, the same writer 



72 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

adds, " that they who never heard of Christ may 
seek God ; therefore it is true that even they shall 
please him, and be rewarded by him ; I say rewarded, 
not with bringing them immediately to salvation without 
Christ, but with bringing them according to his good 
pleasure first to faith in Christ, and so to salvation" 
This divine, after meeting the case, as one might sup- 
pose from the commencement of his remarks, appears 
to relinquish all, and rests the salvation of every 
heathen upon the probable, or rather certain attain- 
ment of a knowledge of Christ. After declaring that 
some only may have means given them to believe that 
God is, and that he is a rewarder of them that seek 
him — and to whom thus much only is given, to them 
it shall not be damnable that they believe but only this 
much — it has the appearance of flying the argument 
so well begun, to settle down upon the undeduced 
conclusion that, by some means, Christ will be set be- 
fore the eye of the veriest pagan, in order that his 
admissible salvation may not compromise the gospel. 
But the whole matter remains as it was ; the heathen 
can be saved through faith in God alone, or they can- 
not. Were the nature of the reward named in the 
promise to the seeker of God fully defined in the pas- 
sage of Hebrews where it is to be found, it alone 
would settle the question ; but such not being the 
case, the ultimate destiny of the heathen must be 
gathered from other scriptures. It is persumed to be 
beyond question that infants, and those who are by 
nature incapable of believing in Christ or God, are 
regenerated by the powerful and, to them, involun- 
tary operation of the grace of the Spirit ; and are as 
surely inheritors of the promises as are those who, ex- 



A LIVING FAITH AND A DEAD FAITH. 73 

ercising faith in the Messiah, pass their sojourn here 
under the constant ministrations of the Holy Ghost. 
This being admitted, does it not as certainly follow 
that pagans, or all who are without the limits of 
Christianity, if they work the work of righteousness 
according to their best understanding of the moral 
law, may be sharers in the blessings of the faithful to 
the degree of their appreciation of divine things? 
And hence the more civilized and prospered nations 
are anxiously and unceasingly contriving plans for 
evangelizing the worshippers of idols by putting them 
in possession of the Scriptures, that they may gain a 
knowledge of Christ, and a better idea of the true and 
living God, "whom they now so ignorantly worship," 
and thus improve their social, civil, and religious con- 
dition. It is not to save them from inevitable destruc- 
tion solely, as if they were doomed without the aid of 
the Holy Scriptures not to attain eternal life, but 
rather that they may see their errors, become wiser 
and better, and more worthy of the image they bear 
in their spiritual creation. By the spread of Chris- 
tianity among heathen nations, those who already 
practise righteousness as they understand it would be 
assisted in the performance of duty, while thousands 
who are now sunk low in superstition might be re- 
deemed and made useful and happy. 

Faith in God alone, therefore, may or may not be 
dead, according to the particular circumstances of the 
case. To save any who live under the teachings of 
the sacred Scriptures, something more is requisite 
than a bare belief in God, unconnected with Christ ; 
for to deny the mission of the Saviour is tantamount 
to a full rejection of the truthfulness of God. Hence 

4 



74 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

to Christian nations the belief in the Father is inti- 
mately joined with a belief in the Son, and both ren- 
dered necessary for salvation; nor will it suffice to 
say that it is easier to believe in the existence of a 
supreme Power than in the Eedeemer of the world, as 
the Son is the express image of the Father ; and if 
the account given by God of the origin and mission 
of his Son is not credited, then there is at once a re- 
fusal to believe in the attributes of the divine Ruler. 
But to save those who are in the outer darkness of 
superstition, belief in the mediation of Christ cannot 
be exacted as indispensable to salvation, for none of 
them could be saved until the plan of redemption 
should become known, which may require much time 
in respect to many nations. They must, therefore, 
believe in God, or practise moral virtue and fulfil the 
law given them with sincerity and zeal, and thus se- 
cure that salvation freely purchased for all by the 
perfect obedience of Christ. With that portion who 
do not so act, but live in gross sin and folly, guilt may 
be greatly extenuated ; but their belief in God, or the 
recognition of the moral code, will be insufficient to 
save them, and result as in the case of those who, 
under more favourable circumstances, have only an 
inoperative faith in the blessed Eedeemer. There 
must be faith in the Messiah wherever his gospel is 
heard proclaimed ; and where that has not come, then 
obedience to the dictates of conscience alone, the law 
" written in the members " — if in the absence of all 
plainer instruction it be made the constant guide — 
corresponding to the law recorded in the pages of the 
sacred Scriptures. 



UNBELIEF THE MIND'S NATIVE CONDITION. 75 



CHAPTER VI. 

UNBELIEF THE NATIVE CONDITION OF THE MIND. 

However humiliating the thought that man is prone 
to disbelieve in God and credit the falsities of sin, 
nevertheless both reason and experience teach it to 
be true ; and it is only by the displacement of the 
original element of strife in the soul that the spirit 
can become free and happy. So long as the heart 
remains debatable ground it may very properly be 
said to be in possession of the enemy ; and not until 
the retreat is sounded, and the legions withdrawn, 
can it be said there is a surrender. 

This primary state of the mind of fallen man may 
be shown from such considerations as, 1. The change 
naturally wrought in the soul at the fall. 2. The 
Scriptural injunction to believe. 3. As certainly an- 
tagonistic to remedial influence ; and, 4. That happi- 
ness is only reproduced by grace, a positive principle, 
as a succedaneum. 

When in the beginning darkness brooded over the 
face of all things, and nature assumed a state of 
illimitable disorder, it was a remarkable exhibition 
of power that produced life, light, and beauty by the 
mere word of command. But when gross darkness 
had gathered over the soul, and its active, not latent, 
elements had been perverted by the fall, producing a 
disorder that was perpetually growing worse, it re- 
quired a still greater manifestation of goodness, wis- 
dom and power to check the terrible commotion, and 
reproduce light and harmony. The former state was 



76 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

but night, with silence unbroken ; the latter the awful 

anarchy of incongruous bodies, all moving without 

sphere or system. The unbounded scene of chaotic 

matter, but newly created, awaited the voice of Life 

to put it in motion ; the soul in its restless strife had 

to be illumined by the Spirit of God, and the moving 

masses of thought and feeling stayed or regulated in 

their wanderings : 

" ; T was great to speak the world from naught ; 
' T was greater to redeem." 

In the language of Mr. Wesley, " In the image of 
God was man made — holy, as he that created him is 
holy ; merciful, as the Author of all is merciful ; per- 
fect, as his Father in heaven is perfect. As God is 
love, so man, dwelling in love, dwelt in God, and God 
in him. God made him to be an image of his own 
eternity — an incorruptible picture of the God of glory. 
He was accordingly pure, as God is pure, from every 
spot of sin. He knew not evil in any kind or degree, 
but was inwardly and outwardly sinless and undefiled. 
He ' loved the Lord his God with all his heart, and 
with all his mind, and soul, and strength/ Thus 
formed, there came to him a law from God for his 
government — a pure and perfect law; and it was 
required of him to fulfil it. Fully able to do so, on 
account of his perfections, it was expected that he 
should render complete obedience. But he did not 
obey, and, in the moment of eating the forbidden fruit, 
felt the sentence of death passing on him. Thus 
1 by one man sin entered into the world, and death 
by sin/ " 

When the original pair were placed in the garden, 
and the command given not to partake of the forbid- 



UNBELIEF THE MIND'S NATIVE CONDITION. 77 

den fruit, they showed no signs of unbelief, but re- 
ceived the mandate in silence, and still worshipped 
the Being who gave it. But ere long a voice was 
heard breaking the stillness of that sacred scene, say- 
ing, " Eat, for thou shalt not surely die." It was the 
first temptation. Here were arrayed two counsels in 
direct opposition. To partake would be to deny God's 
'truth in threatening; to refrain, to doubt the decla- 
ration of the Tempter. Belief arrayed against unbe- 
lief: a primary against a secondary principle. They 
could not coexist in the mind, either being sufficient 
to occupy it. Admitting the plea of the adversary 
would be to change their primal condition. Being in 
the image of God, to question the attribute of truth 
was to nullify the existence of such attribute, and 
pervert the whole moral organization. To disobey 
God would not be merely to remain stationary at 
that point, but, having an active nature, it must still 
continue in motion, and that forever. The sin could 
not destroy, but only change the moral being of the 
delinquents. Under such circumstances the 

" Rash hand in evil hour 

Forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she ate! 
Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat, 
Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe 
That all was lost." 

It was, therefore, a natural change, and the mind 
became as much the subject of unbelief as though it 
had never been privileged to enjoy its opposite. It 
was a sudden transition from belief to unbelief, from 
light to darkness, from life to death. When, there- 
fore, the Saviour was promised it was requisite to be- 
lieve on him in order to obtain eternal life ; and to 



78 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

enable man to do so faith had to be supplied from 
God, as he could not now believe in any truth. And 
by the grace of God faith is supplied, and by it the 
soul restored to its forfeited condition. So " faith is 
the gift of God, through our Lord Jesus Christ." Man 
has now the privilege of recovering from his sad and 
fatal mistake by discerning God's truth, and, being 
rightly impressed with its immutability, through this ■ 
belief thoroughly established in the soul, be restored 
to a complete union with him : this return to a full 
measure of faith securing the felicity lost. We conceive 
the change from belief to unbelief was both natural 
and complete, and that the principle of unbelief has 
since held sway in all the unconverted, as the usurper 
of a throne once in the possession of another power. 
Nor can it be supposed that at the moment of the 
transgression Adam still continued to believe God's 
word in threatening punishment in case of disobe- 
dience, and that notwithstanding this assurance he 
wilfully and deliberately exchanged the happy state 
he then enjoyed for perdition. For though it be alto- 
gether impossible to disclose the operations of the 
mind of the transgressors, yet it appears from what is 
known of the motives to action now controlling hu- 
man nature, the Archenemy would not have made an 
assault which was not highly insidious — covering its 
true designs ; and that had the intimation been given 
at the time of temptation that death would follow, 
they would by no means have leaped into destruction. 
The better presumption, therefore, is that they did 
not believe God would execute vengeance for such act 
of disobedience. They surely could not have supposed 
that the destiny of the soul hung upon that hour, and 



UNBELIEF THE MIND'S NATIVE CONDITION. 79 

then have so madly discarded all hope of happiness ; 
they might have "been more indifferent as to the divine 
attribute brought in question by thus forgetting the 
counsels of Wisdom. 

2. The same conclusions may be drawn from the 
directions constantly given in the sacred writings to 
believe in God. No page can scarcely be found that 
does not urge man to repent and believe ; and, catch- 
ing the watchword, the ministers of the gospel go to 
and fro in the earth, eagerly and constantly beseech- 
ing the sinner to turn and live. St. John affirms that 
" whosoever believeth should not perish, but have eter- 
nal life." Again, " He that believeth not is condemned 
already, because he believeth not in the name of the 
only-begotten Son of God." Again, Christ saith, " Ye 
shall die in your sins if ye believe not that I am he." 
In Ephesians it is also said, " Salvation is through 
faith." " Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall 
save his people from their sins." " Now the righteous- 
ness which is by faith in Jesus Christ is manifested 
unto all that believe." " Him hath God set forth to 
be a propitiation, through faith in his blood, to declare 
his righteousness for the remission of sins that are 
past." " There is, therefore, now no condemnation to 
them which believe in Christ Jesus." And again : 
" Whosoever believeth is born of God." These, with 
similar scriptures, everywhere to be found, testify to 
the infinite importance of believing in Christ, " who 
is the power of God unto salvation to every one that 
believeth." 

And we may not look merely at the instruction to 
exercise faith as being requisite and proper to restore 
the mind to its original state, but there is an earnest- 



80 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

ness of appeal in these quotations which gives them 
special interest. The faith that alone brings salva- 
tion is held up before the mind in every possible light 
to convince it of its vital worth, it being the burden 
of every holy penman's song. Turn wherever we 
may, we behold on the banners of the hopeful army 
of the Lord the inscription of Faith. And there is 
scarcely a more beautiful and delightful portion of 
the apostolical writings than St. Paul's episode to the 
Hebrew brethren beginning with this idea. He exults 
over the recollection of such names as Abel, Enoch, 
Noah, Abraham, and others; and, as if breathless with 
the long and joyous recital, interrogates the world as 
to what he should say more, as " time would fail him 
to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and 
of Jephthah, of David also, and Samuel, and of the 
prophets." Ever since the melancholy hour of the 
fall has God set up the ensign before the world, and 
the least and the greatest have all been vehemently 
urged to fix their gaze steadily upon it. 

From which considerations we are led to conclude 
that there is much virtue in this principle, so con- 
stantly urged upon mankind as being the alpha and 
omega of their hopes. An element that is so often 
alluded to and pressed upon the attention, and which 
is forever arrayed in direct hostility to the natural 
condition of man, must mean something more than 
that it is an element of consanguineous nature with 
disbelief, a correlative of it, or as preoccupying the 
mind at the moment of its enthralment; and if so, it 
must be taken to be the negative state considered in 
reference to the fall: its purpose in such case being 
to dislodge the destroying quality of the mind, and to 



UNBELIEF THE MIND'S NATIVE CONDITION. 81 

take the supreme direction of it, restoring it imme- 
diately to union with God as its original state. 

But, 3. From being antagonistic to remedial influ- 
ence. He who has a heart will readily assent to the 
conclusion that " it is deceitful above all things, and 
desperately wicked ;" that from the earliest dawn of 
reason there is danger of being deceived by it, and 
that from the period of accountability to the hour of 
conversion the Saviour displays nothing like " come- 
liness of person " to its apprehension. Were it neces- 
sary, the enmity of the heart to all righteousness 
might be argued by referring to the outward mani- 
festations of the evil principle in the dark and bloody 
pages of history. For out of the heart proceeded the 
baleful influences that so marked these eras. From 
that little but troubled fountain have issued the 
streams by which the earth has been flooded with 
anarchy and confusion ; and, as if flowing from a 
source inexhaustible, the awful devastation natural 
to their progression is ever visible in the world. A 
remarkable exemplification of this idea is to be found 
in the reign of atheism and terror in France, and an 
instance such as to render all further proof on such 
an appalling subject unnecessary. It has been af- 
firmed by the historian that France, during this 
period, " was a theatre of crimes, w^hich, after all pre- 
ceding perpetrations, have excited in the mind of 
every spectator amazement and horror. The miseries 
suffered by that single nation have changed all the 
histories of the preceding sufferings of mankind into 
idle tales, and have been enhanced and multiplied 
without precedent, without a number, without a name. 
The kingdom appeared to be changed into one great 

4* 



82 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

prison ; the inhabitants converted into felons ; and 
the common doom of man commuted for the violence 
of the sword and bayonet, the sinking boat, and the 
guillotine. To contemplative men it seemed for a 
season that the knell of the whole nation was tolled, and 
the world summoned to its execution and its funeral. 79 
Within the short period of ten years not less than 
three millions of human beings are supposed to have 
perished in that single country by the influence of 
atheism. These extensive evidences are but proofs 
of the elements of the human heart pointing the in- 
quirer to the true source of evil, but are not needed 
by any who study their nature. All feel and know 
the secret workings of the power of darkness within, 
tempting them to deeds of wickedness, and filling their 
mind with disorder. Nor would it prove anything 
against their antagonistic character were it admitted 
that without a law sin would still be agreeable to the 
carnal mind, developing its strength in as fair a ratio 
to its duration as could piety, were it, on the contrary, 
allowed to display itself. For when sound rules of 
action are applied to the conduct they meet with 
greater opposition in cases of protracted indulgence 
in sin than when it is otherwise, showing that the 
germ of evil contains all the elements of opposition to 
good — its growth and expansion only tending towards 
its larger display. And though reason teaches that 
God is holy and happy, and that man was originally 
so, and hence his best state is in connexion with that 
holiness, it follows with equal clearness from personal 
experience. The light of truth does not create the 
suffering in case of sinful indulgence, however it may 
attest the fact — the light only reveals the corruption 



UNBELIEF THE MIND'S NATURAL CONDITION. 83 

of the heart. Let it be granted that where there is 
no law there is no sin, still this does not prove that 
any course man might naturally pursue wpuld secure 
happiness. The distinction between moral suffering 
and its opposite, now existing with a law, would still 
exist without it, and the greater the departure from 
the moral law the greater the suffering to be endured. 
Xot to that extent, it is true, where there is a dread 
of final punishment, for this of itself constitutes a 
large share of misery. Now if there be so great an 
inclination to follow vice with the terrors of the law 
and individual experience in suffering in view, how 
clear it becomes that there is a state in which the soul 
would almost as greatly loathe all means of happi- 
ness as it would its own annihilation, if that happi- 
ness was the opposite of its sinful state, as it ever 
must be. The tendency of the corrupt heart is in the 
direction of total blindness and misery, and can only 
be restrained by the grace of God — that both showing 
the defilement and power of sin, and pointing to a way 
of escape. The light of truth being necessary for 
mental illumination, the mind's obliquity is proved ; 
nor will it be restored to soundness until the moral 
nature is renovated. 

If man expects happiness he must call in foreign 
aid. His own will and intentions being too weak to 
insure success, the eternal Spirit is necessary to show 
the way more perfectly, and also to help him to walk 
therein. Every step he takes in the path to virtue 
must be upon debateable ground. The country 
through which he is to pass is claimed by an enemy, 
and whatever light is afforded but discloses the dan- 
gers thickly encountered in the journey ; and the 



84 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

enemy being unappeasable in his wrath, and the un- 
regenerate heart averse to those precepts exacting 
purity, holiness, justice, and goodness, it cannot be 
denied but that it argues a preceding state of evil, 
existing from the moment of the declension in 
paradise. 

But, 4. Happiness is only reproduced by grace, a 
positive principle as a succedaneum. No declaration 
stands out more prominently in the word of God, 
and affords more hope than this : " By grace ye are 
saved " — saved by the mercy of God, by love being 
produced in the soul towards him. Hence mercy has 
been called a darling attribute, and none seems to 
have been so properly used in the salvation of the 
world as this. We are therefore to infer that man 
was indeed far gone in unrighteousness when it re- 
quired the unspeakable gift of the Only-Begotten of 
the Father to effect redemption. But why was the 
attribute of love so largely exercised in this resusci- 
tation to life, unless because of the enmity in the 
heart, and that this enmity was to that love ? Had 
there been left in the heart love towards God, it would 
seem to have been less necessary to premeditate an 
infusion of it therein, but rather to have sought out 
some more vitally deranged constituent portion of his 
nature and brought the attributes of power, or wisdom, 
or some other, to act upon it. If reason was lost, then 
let it be restored through God's abundant wisdom: if 
bodily strength only, a portion of his infinite might could 
be bestowed : if the wall was entirely destroyed, and man 
had become a mere brute, then let infinite power force 
him into the enjoyment of that happiness sacrificed 
through voluntary action. But it was not so. On the 



UNBELIEF THE MIND'S NATURAL CONDITION. 85 

contrary there was a complete estrangement of the heart 
from God, and the enmity diffused abroad in it needed 
an opposing power to meet and conquer it. The foul 
seed had been sown, and the grace of God first shown 
in giving his only Son to die an ignominious death, 
and secondly in giving his Spirit to dwell in the soul 
as a sanctifier, leaves no room to doubt that an antag- 
onistic state of the heart urgently demanded a restor- 
ative that would melt it, and impress thereon the 
beautiful image of the heavenly divinity. Impelled 
by this love, "God was in Christ reconciling the world 
unto himself/' atoning for its guilt, and imparting 
the Holy Spirit so as to purify the heart of the par- 
doned offender. By such means was the purpose of 
the great deceiver in a measure prevented, for thereby 
might Eden again become " as the garden of the 
Lord," and man repose unmolested in her bowers. 
But though grace had dictated this arrangement for 
the restoration of Adam and his race, none would ven- 
ture to rely on the precious promises unless the power 
of belief was conferred. Hence this necessary was 
supplied, and the word written for the monition of all : 
" By grace are ye saved through faith, and that [faith] 
not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God." This 
state of grace, therefore, being in so intimate a rela- 
tionship with faith in this work of salvation, we are 
led to the conception of its being, by propinquity, 
allied to it; for to believe in God is to love him; and 
that they two stand as opposed to the two adverse ele- 
ments of hatred and unbelief. 



86 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 



CHAPTER VIL 

WALK BY FAITH. 

" Walk in the light, and thou shalt own 

Thy darkness passed away ; 
Because that Light hath on thee shone 

In which is perfect day. 

" Walk in the light, and e'en the tomb 

No fearful shade shall wear ; 
Glory shall chase away its gloom, . 

For Christ hath conquer'd there. 

" Walk in the light — thy path shall be 

Peaceful, serene, and bright; 
For God by grace shall dwell in thee, 

And God himself is light." 

The walk by faith being contrasted in the Scrip- 
tures with that by sight, it would seein to teach that 
the latter is but the exposition in active life of the 
rudiments of unregenerate nature, and that a living 
and a dead faith are not more opposite in their char- 
acter than a walk by faith and by sight. Let us, 
therefore, advert to some of the particulars of the lat- 
ter, so as to enable us to consider rightly the former. 

And, 1. It may be considered as living without a 
belief in a future state. He who disbelieves in an ex- 
istence beyond the grave is, for that reason, disposed 
to make the most of the time allotted to him here ; 
and, really supposing that all the enjoyment and suf- 
fering in life are to be compressed into so short a com- 
pass, strives for as much of the former, and to avoid 
as much of the latter as possible. Time being too 
short for serious thought respecting friendship, the 



WALK BY FAITH. 87 

relationships of a brief hour, prompted by self-interest, 
come in to fill their place. The deeds of deepest dye, 
if screened from observation, will lie concealed forever, 
and no barrier is set up against the tendencies of 
small crimes to end in greater. The soul becomes 
delirious in excesses, and each step towards the speedy 
results of life hurries it on to still more wanton indul- 
gence, until the grave becomes the vortex into which 
the giddy sink. The remotest period to any calcula- 
tion is at the end of life, and the plans laid are only 
dependant on each other for their development ; or en- 
tertaining the belief that all things are but the result 
of chance, man defers to its blind direction all schemes 
extending beyond his immediate control. Yet in 
either case, maintaining a constant eye upon the ex- 
ternals of life, it never occurs to him that there is in 
motion around him a system of material and imma- 
terial action, guided by a hand and thought that can- 
not err, and that all his acts are known and registered 
according to specific rules of judgment and justice. 
His living by sight conceals all this from his view, 
and he is without the slightest suspicion of any sys- 
tem of moral government. 

2. Believing in a future state, yet disregarding it. 
In no age has the denial of a future state obtained 
much weight from numbers — the impress of reason 
being too deep to admit such a capricious sentiment. 
There have, however, been some among the ranks 
eminent for learning and capacity, who have either 
pretended to believe, or actually believed in such 
monstrosity. But those admitting a state of being 
beyond this life, but who notwithstanding spend their 
time in utter disregard of the consequences of vicious 



88 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

conduct, include vast numbers even in the midst of 
civilized society. There is but little of that cast of 
infidelity which denies the existence of a Supreme 
Power and the dictates of virtue ; but there is a kind 
less appalling in name, yet quite as dangerous in 
practice, under the title of Practical Atheism. By 
such God is allowed an existence, and even his moral 
government is not denied ; but in conduct there is an 
utter disregard of this admission, and the same de- 
gree of disobedience practised as if there were really 
no obligations resting upon them. It is the disposi- 
tion of such to wage perpetual war against the teach- 
ings of their consciences, endeavouring to steel them- 
selves against the oft-recurring apprehensions of guilt 
and final retribution. In the still hours of night 
these quake with dread at the thought of the punish- 
ment of the wicked, and strive to divert their minds 
from such forebodings, but rise on the morrow with 
determinations to shake this fear from the soul by 
crowding out all reflection upon the subject. And 
accordingly they seek the blinding and benumbing 
influence of sin to relieve their perplexities. The eye 
is diverted from within and from the Being above 
them, and placed upon anything calculated to main- 
tain a barrier between the mind and its more dreaded 
exercises, until the " heart hardens and the neck 
stiffens" against all authority tending to rebuke 
transgression or coerce in the way of virtue. These 
live only by sight; for their whole life is spent in en- 
deavouring to steep the senses with the opiates of vice, 
and to confine their whole being to the little sphere 
of the present world. They live by sight, opening 
their eyes especially upon all the scenes of folly, and 



WALK BY FAITH. 89 

shutting them whenever anything is presented of pure 
and holy tendency. Hoping to find their chief good 
in this world by indifference to the next, it should 
surprise no one if they seal up the heavens against 
their peace in time and in eternity. 

3. There are many again who, following the blind 
instincts of nature, appear to think them designed as 
dictates of conduct, being implanted by the Creator 
for wise and happy purposes. Natural feelings are 
to be the sole prompters to action, and if evil ensues 
it should serve as a humiliating reflection, and thus 
act beneficially in preventing excess in vice, or unu- 
sual abstinence from inflating the mind with pride or 
vanity. The just measure of natural indulgence is 
sought for in that which is supposed to be the happiest 
condition. Over-indulgence would but mar future 
enjoyment by blunting the senses ; or too little would 
fail to awaken the feelings into proper activity ; and 
so either mistake would be the means of losing, for 
the moment, that degree of happiness naturally and 
rightly belonging to it. Such, in reality, " do evil 
that good may come," and when they die have, as a 
prominent regret, the neglect to indulge some favour- 
ite propensity more, for in so doing much of life had 
been wasted in opposition to the dictates of instinct 
or reason. 

But others assume to be judges of the instincts to 
be followed, and of the mode of their use ; and by re- 
pressing some of the more vicious dispositions, and 
fostering others according to a set formulary of their 
own inventing, create a character out of the mass of 
good and evil ; and by attaching titles of distinction 
to the best, and more debasing ones to the inferior 



90 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

motives, there goes out into the world the man of such 
heterogeneous birth and formation as an exemplar of 
honour and virtue. To this class belong the duellist, 
the warrior for renown, and such like personages ; the 
one seeking fame in the field of battle, the other 
among his little circle of friends, and both by indoc- 
trinating themselves with the belief that the senti- 
ment of courage is of the highest dignity, and that it 
should be sustained even at the peril of salvation. 
The subsidence of feeling may bring regret; but from 
the prospect of glory on the field, and of honour to be 
won in the arena of single combat, the indications of 
a better judgment are all cast to the winds, and nat- 
ural instinct moves the soul of the champion to rash- 
ness. Though it may be called a species of insanity 
to follow the impulse of nature without reflection, yet 
it is more properly named a reckless exercise of a 
dangerous ingredient, as those so influenced are calm 
and collected in other matters, and indeed often per- 
petrate with deliberation deeds of shame. If such 
had any degree of faith in a Power able to vindicate 
the honour of the injured, or in the retribution to be 
meted out at the last day, and such was permitted an 
exercise in a reliance upon God, they would not as- 
sume the office of avenging wrong. David had many 
temptations of a similar kind, but did not defend him- 
self by violating the laws of conscience, but exclaimed 
in the midst of these great pressures of evil, "Answer 
thou for me, O Lord, my God !" 

4. Trusting in Fate. Of all objects of confidence 
this seems to be the most anomalous. To men of old, 
who had but partial means of acquaintance with the 
character of God, or to those who, now in heathen 



WALK BY FAITH. 91 

lands, remain without his written word, there is some 
palliation for the offence of trusting in Fate for happi- 
ness. But however repulsive the practice appears, 
when spoken of as a pagan system, it is nevertheless 
feared that it is common even in improved society, 
and loses its deformity because of its mixture with 
other ingredients of a more characteristic kind, and 
on account of names being less descriptive in some 
cases than in others. It is to be feared there are 
many who do not improve upon the system of the ad- 
herents of Mohammed, who attempt no escape from a 
crumbling wall though ruin is impending, but invoke 
the holy prophet, Allah, to restrain the falling mass. 
It is true, no belief in such prophet is discerned among 
Christians ; but is there not a blind confidence in a 
power acknowledged to exist somewhere — or if they 
advance so far in morals as to take this power to be 
in God, yet intrust themselves to his control without 
any effort at personal restraint? That "whatever is 
is right," is a delusion striking at the root of human 
institutions, and of the good government of God over 
his works. This theory may, in its refined applica- 
tion, allow to God a continual and watchful regard 
over the daily walk of men, and permit the exercise 
of supreme power in regulating the affairs of the 
world ; but the effect upon the mind is to cause it to 
forego efforts at improvement, or when error or sin 
have been committed, to close the avenues of repent- 
ance or amendment. Divine Sovereignty has willed 
it; and however the practical operation involves man- 
kind in results of catastrophe or crime, they may 
escape from the charge of connivance at them, and 
suffer only in the immediate injury committed. Peni- 



92 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

tence should not solemnize thought ; for crime was 
unavoidable, and frail man only used by a Supreme 
Power as an agent for perfecting the work of its wise 
and benignant administration ! However sanctified 
by age such a theory may be, it remains adulterated 
with error, effrontery, and evil; and that whether sys- 
tematized according to the advancement of the pres- 
ent day, and practised by zealous adherents, or as 
seen only in the sentiments of the sages of old. Were 
those who submit themselves to the guardianship of 
Fate to transfer that trust to the true Governor of 
the world, it would not however amount to such faith 
as the latter requires ; for, to say nothing of its in- 
tensity or impressiveness, it would lack the discrimi- 
nating ingredient of genuine confidence. For God is 
not only set before the mind as an object of belief, 
but there is amplification and activity given to the 
thought from the still further assurance that "he is 
a rewarder of all those who diligently seek him." By 
this declaration it is to be presumed that his govern- 
ment of mankind is a system ever in active revolu- 
tion, and yet duly regarding the most trifling act of 
obedience or disobedience in every man preparatory 
to its proper recompense of reward. In the language 
of Cowper we may say, — 

" Happy the man who sees a God employ'd 
In all the good and ill that checker life ! 
Resolving all events, with their effects 
And manifold results, into the will 
And arbitration wise of the Supreme. 
Did not his eye rule all things, and intend 
The least of our concerns, (since from the least 
The greatest oft originate ;) could chance 
Find place in his dominion, or dispose 
One lawless particle to thwart his plan ; 



WALK BY FAITH. 93 

Then God might be surprised, and unforeseen 
Contingence might alarm him, and disturb 
The smooth and equal course of his affairs. 
This truth Philosophy, though eagle-eyed 
In nature's tendencies, oft overlooks." 

But notwithstanding the lifelessness of the systems 
of fatalism and of foreknowledge, still we are aware 
of the great difficulty experienced by the best men 
in separating them in practice from pure religion. It 
may herein assume the name of " enthusiasm," or any 
other, but by whatever name known, those who are 
very religiously inclined will often be able to dis- 
cern its traces within the purest precincts of their 
hearts, erring in recognising too much or too little 
of God's changeableness, and yet unchangeableness, 
of purpose in relation to their experience. The 
adoption of the true system of God's government 
carries with it, as a necessary consequence, the belief 
in a particular providence ; and thus believing, adver- 
sities may assume more than their rightful terrors, 
and prosperity clothe itself too gaudily through the 
ecstasy of the mind in appropriating blessings to its 
benefit. Life is composed of joy and sadness, not 
mingled as they should be with sobriety and comfort; 
for though the heart bounds with gladness towards 
the great Donor for unexpected good, it turns away 
with bitterness when circumstances are reversed. 
And although the gratitude realized on such occa- 
sions would not perhaps bear too close a scrutiny, 
still it might be well were it not that disappointment 
causes sullenness or complaint, and what is still worse, 
tends to lead the desponding to question a system of 
government that seems at one time to answer, by 
blessings, to a degree of faith which, at another, 



94 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

only brings the direst misfortunes. Yet such is, 
doubtless, the true system of God's government over 
men ; and when the very devout can, by the defining 
power of the mind, properly perceive the double, 
though not too intricate system, their faith will re- 
ceive a constant nourishment from a continued study 
of the will of God towards them, which that of those 
who only catch glimpses of it at long intervals in their 
experience can never secure. 

The principal difficulty of those who believe in a 
particular providence lies in extending it alike to all; 
and when anything occurs favourably to them in 
imagining they are the peculiar favourites of Heaven. 
But it being clearly impressed on the mind that God 
presides over the whole universe as over every single 
person, he who, believing this, imputes anything which 
befalls him to Providence, does not therein make him- 
self any more the favourite of Heaven than he supposes 
every other man to be. Against the reverse of this 
method of practising faith, says Mr. Wesley, " it be- 
hooves us to guard, with the utmost diligence : con- 
sidering the dreadful effects it has so often produced, 
and which indeed naturally result from it. Its im- 
mediate offspring is pride; it continually increases this 
source from whence it flows ; and hereby it alienates 
us more and more from the favour and from the life 
of God. It dries up the very springs of faith and love, 
of righteousness and true holiness — seeing all these 
flow from grace." They who worship God must wor- 
ship him in spirit and in truth; and as their worship 
may be taken to include all conduct before him in- 
tended to please, the mind must be forever imbued 
with a deep conviction of this spirituality and life as 



WALK BY FAITH. 95 

being present with all. This view makes the mind 
strong and steady in its sense of the divine presence, 
as being at all times a special guardian of individual 
interests. Walking by sight is the reverse of this 
worship in spirit, embracing all non-apprehension of 
the divine presence, or substituting for it any arrange- 
ment whereby each event is made to personate its 
own divinity, and every circumstance end its own his- 
tory of design or service. An empressement is not 
denied to every event ; but yet they bear no relation 
to a future state in that sense, or to the proper extent, 
but are judged of as good or evil too much in ac- 
cordance with the immediate consequences. Those 
who only look thus far at their daily walk live " by 
sight," and it requires a step beyond to enter within 
the sphere of infinite design. Both worlds must be 
seen with a clear eye, and the things that are visible, 
being earthly, made to accord with those that are 
spiritual and discernible by faith. 

Were it necessary to enlarge npon the expression, 
" walk by faith," it might be said the idea conveyed 
is that of progressive motion. For there are other 
methods of walking mentioned in Scripture, as back- 
wards, astray, aside, and the like ; but any of these 
modes signifies motion. The walk by faith is there- 
fore taken to mean progress towards heaven. As 
faith is in another place represented under the figure 
of an " anchor " cast within the veil — the state of 
trial being like a sea swept by the tempest — the 
anchor as a hope both sure and steadfast, ever bind- 
ing the soul to the inner sanctuary while riding out 
the storm ; so here it represents one moving towards 
the end of his journey, ever keeping his eye fixed on 



96 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

one object, and that object Christ. If the eye is with- 
drawn but a moment darkness begins to collect, since 
all light must come from the one object set up in the 
firmament of the soul. If the eye is diverted, so are 
the rays ; and if for life, how great must be the dark- 
ness accumulated ! " Walk in the light as I am in 
the light," saith our Saviour ; therefore he who walks 
safely must have a true light, ancTwhere can this be 
found but in the gospel? It is true, God hath mer- 
cifully illumined every mind as it enters the world ; 
and though this light hath assumed many names, as 
the light of nature, conscience, and reason, and seems 
to become sometimes stronger, sometimes weaker 
in man ; still, it is insufficient, for otherwise we 
should not behold the wisest men groping in spiritual 
darkness. Hence the apostle, in writing to one of the 
Churches, says, " Sometimes [that is, at first] ye were 
in darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord;" from 
which it is inferred that the former light was so in- 
effectual for the purpose of salvation as compared 
w r ith the sanctifying or regenerating effusions of the 
Holy Spirit, it was but " darkness." The apostle did 
not deny the existence of the light of reason or con- 
science by charging them with previous blindness ; 
for in speaking of the Gentiles he says, " They do by 
nature the things contained in the law, their con- 
science bearing witness, and their thoughts meantime 
accusing or else excusing one another." Hence 
light is admitted as existing and used, answering the 
purpose of those who improved it, and as only to be 
superseded by the brighter one created by the coming 
of Christ, and the gift of the Holy Ghost. Therefore 
to walk by the light of reason will not suffice for any 



WALK BY PAITH. 97 

who have witnessed this great light, at first seen by 
the wise men, "like a star in the east," but which has 
since become the luminary of the Christian world. 
The walk must be in this light, " ever looking unto 
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith." 

But the walk must be forward. The Bible speaks 
of many who, once advancing in the way to heaven, 
had gone hack to the elements of the world. Some 
direction must be taken by all, and they who do not 
advance must go backward or aside. The way to heav- 
en is represented as "straight and narrow;" hence it is 
said, " Let thine eyes look rigid on, and thine eyelids 
look straight before thee. Turn not to the right hand 
nor to the left; — remove thy foot from evil." David, 
reversing the course of those who hastened towards 
destruction, represents himself as moving quickly for- 
ward in the way, and eager for the happy issue, ex- 
claiming with a loud voice, " Open to me the gates of 
righteousness, that I may enter in !" He looked not 
after the gates of death ; his face was towards the 
gates of Zion, and his walk onward in that direction; 
and to all such as walk in the road of righteousness 
will the same admittance be secured. Were it possi- 
ble to remain stationary in Christian experience, the 
failure to proceed would be as complete a hinderance 
as if the pilgrim wandered from the beaten track. 
But there is no unprogressive state, and all who are 
not walking towards the new Jerusalem in the way 
marked out in the gospel, are either meandering, 
treading quickly the backward or downward road 
leading to destruction, or else remaining "dead in 
trespasses and sins." 

But more particularly to walk by faith, as contrasted 
5 



98 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

with that by sight, is to be constantly sensible of 
the divine light and presence, and able to refer the 
things seen to their connexion with the unseen. The 
thin partition separating the sensible part of man's 
being from the spiritual is to be thrust aside, reveal- 
ing to the eye the operation of truth upon the senti- 
ment within and the conduct without. And so doing 
it will become plain that the free and legitimate 
working of this inward, spiritual order of things, does 
not interfere with free and proper action, there being 
no reaction on externals, so far as the ordinary prog- 
ress of the natural world is concerned, and none other- 
wise, unless it be that of the corrupt nature, either as 
mainly possessing the ground by original right, or as 
encroaching upon the province of grace after it has, 
in part or in whole, gained the ascendency in the soul. 
Now as the innate desire of the soul, before receiving 
any of the light of truth, is to conform itself to the 
pattern of unrighteousness, as personified in the char- 
acter of Satan, so the mind, catching views of this 
beautiful kingdom which it is necessary to establish, 
seeks, by the assistance of grace, to conform this inner 
world to the pattern of heavenly things, and at the 
same time applies the external and visible circum- 
stances of life in aid of the work of reformation, 
though more particularly to the end of bringing into 
still stronger light the hidden sources whence issue 
such delights. " Faith works by love in purifying 
the heart," and whilst the joy afforded in its opera- 
tions is evidence of the regenerating quality of divine 
trust, it also excites a desire for the object which, by 
beholding, leads to such excellences ; and though this 
thirst after holiness, because Christ is holy, is not 



ANTAGONISMS OF FAITH. 99 

quenchable by the frequency of the draught, it too 
readily departs at each instance of neglect of the 
means of grace, and he is ready to exclaim in the 
language of Cowper : — 

11 for a closer walk with God, — 

A calm and heavenly frame ; 
A light to shine upon the road 

That leads me to the Lamb. 

" Where is the blessedness I knew, 

When first I saw the Lord? 
Where is the soul-refreshing view 

Of Jesus and his word ? 

"What peaceful hours I once enjoy'd! 

How sweet their memory still ! 
But they have left an aching void 

The world can never fill." 



CHAPTEE VIII. 

THE THREE ANTAGONISMS OF FAITH. 

For conveniency of expression, as well as for reasons 
arising from the real nature of the suhject, all oppo- 
sition to the well-being of the soul has been general- 
ized into a few compounds, including all elements at 
war with its peace; and as these have been set forth 
as the grand antagonisms of human happiness, and 
as faith exercises so important a function in the sys- 
tem of salvation, it has been here substituted for that 
salvation itself. The vast number of difficulties lying 
in the way of salvation being, therefore, thus banded 
together under these appellatives, as hosts under the 
banners of so many warlike leaders, it becomes more 
easy to challenge victorious combat with the legions 



100 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

of the enemy : accordingly the first of these powers 
marshalled into the field is the world. 

The world. Though the term world is collective, 
yet in this case it is distributive also, for the reason 
that there is, in one sense, comprehended in it more 
than is required to meet the necessities of the subject. 
For it should not be supposed that the whole of ani- 
mate and inanimate matter is to be taken as divisibly 
or indivisibly opposed to the spiritual interests of 
mankind ; but, on the contrary, that out of the vari- 
ous materials composing this entirety there is such a 
collection of evils, it becomes not improper to desig- 
nate them in their collective capacity as an opposition 
from the whole world. It is true, that the time the 
curse fell on the creation its fair proportions were 
greatly despoiled of their former grandeur and 
beauty, and none can behold the work of the spoiler 
without a sigh ; but so noble was the architecture 
displayed in its production that, notwithstanding its 
degeneracy, it exhibits a degree of perfection still, and 
presents views of magnificence not only most pleasing 
to the mind, but highly entertaining and instructive 
to the soul. This world may, therefore, very properly 
be divided into two parts, when considering it as at 
enmity to God and man : the first including all that 
beauty and system remaining undestroyed, though 
changed in the event of the fall ; the second embrac- 
ing the grosser properties and conditions, so altered 
through the great agent of evil as to present but a 
residue of active, deadly hostility to the human race. 
It is this latter portion that takes to itself the name 
of " enmity" and when speaking of the interests of 
the soul is to be termed the "world." As to the 



ANTAGONISMS OF FAITH. 101 

former branch of opposite tendencies, which also be- 
long in another sense to the creation, they can be said 
to offer aid to mankind in not only supplying the neces- 
saries of life to the body, but in a higher and loftier 
sense as being the one with which we are the more 
concerned by developing hidden beauties in the mind 
and spirit, and maturing them into an interesting 
state of growth. Even the mind of the heathen is in- 
spired by connexion with the glorious array of nature 
around it; and from the impression made at beholding 
the sun, moon, and stars, the green earth and the 
sparkling fountain, or in hearing the music of the 
merry voices constantly raised by bird and insect in 
chantings to their Creator, it responds in wonder and 
admiration at such great excellence, and even sins 
by deeming things seen to possess it so greatly to be 
of themselves the objects of adoration. The Indian 
drinks in the melody of the cataract in its sonorous 
symphony, and, awed by its grandeur, sinks upon the 
knee in wonder, bordering on worship. And if such 
be the homage of the untutored mind in view of the 
objects of nature, how much more grateful to the soul 
must be the study of them by those who are enabled 
to perceive therein the handiwork of God ! It was 
under such circumstances of contemplation that David 
was led to exclaim : " When I consider thy heavens, 
the work of thy fingers ; the moon and the stars, which 
thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou art mind- 
ful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? 
for thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, 
and hast crowned him with glory and honour." To a 
soul endued with divine grace, alive to the motives of 
gratitude, and deeply humble, such scenes are power- 



102 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

ful auxiliaries to the growth of piety, in filling the 
mind with sentiments that greatly exalt its character. 
Nor is it thus with regard to the more outward dis- 
plays of universe alone, but it may also be considered 
as true in relation to many objects and subjects of 
thought and apprehension that spring out of the con- 
nexion between animate and inanimate creation, and 
man its properly constituted lord, producing forms 
and varieties of good that operate upon the mind and 
heart more powerfully than the mere lifeless externals 
of nature. How does the pure and balmy air inspirit 
the thought to intensity, or calm the mind into reflec- 
tion ! How does the return of seed-time and harvest 
animate with enterprise, or satisfy with abundance ! 
How cheering and refining the evening circle of friend- 
ship gathered around the domestic fireside, or the 
reunions of the social festival ! How energizing the 
contact between man and man in the avocations of 
life, calling into birth and action thought and effort, 
that would never otherwise be witnessed ! How blessed 
the deed of charity both to the receiver and giver ! 
In a word, how sweet the thousand voices proceeding 
out of the happy combinations of mind and matter 
yet existing ! There should, therefore, be no regret 
extending to all the remaining signs of wisdom and 
goodness visible, but only a wise and judicious sepa- 
ration of the good and bad, and the acceptance of the 
one to the rejection of the other. 

The whole of that combination of unhappy and 
hurtful forms of creation properly denominated the 
world, when speaking of the enmity ever existing be- 
tween it and the soul, is not to be reconciled to the 
promotion of human happiness ; for it is but the poison 



ANTAGONISMS OF FAITH. 103 

exuded from the fangs of the serpent in the deadly- 
contact he cunningly and maliciously obtained with 
the first pair, which no correctives can ever remove or 
weaken, and which must rankle in the heart of the 
beautiful until the " earth and all things therein are 
burned up." Any of these destructive agencies are 
to be shunned, as no good can be expected from them. 
They are " enmity to God," and must indeed remain 
so. And yet were it not that the taste and feeling 
of men are vitiated by this independent source of 
original evil ; were it not that the eye which looks 
out upon nature is jaundiced, or the senses disordered, 
it might be correctly said that what he eats and 
drinks, or otherwise uses, cannot injure the soul ; but 
that from the heart, the seat of all corruption, does 
evil emerge. But owing to the adaptation of many 
things seen and used to man's very existence, it arises 
that the things themselves are put for the authors of 
the evil effected. Hence the frequent and uncom- 
promising hostility shown in the Bible to " the things 
of the world " is reconciled with such expressions as 
testify to their harmlessness or innocency ; and by 
keeping the thought fixed on the dividing line be- 
tween the good and evil use of natural things can the 
language of Scripture alone be understood and ap- 
plied. The corn and the wine may, by use, end in 
gluttony or inebriation ; yet the Saviour " brake bread 
and ate " before the multitude, and St. Paul recom- 
mended to Timothy the use of " a little wine." Money 
likewise is said to be the " root of evil ;" and yet the 
king of Tyre was not charged with wickedness in fell- 
ing the cedars of Lebanon by means of hired Sido- 
nians, as hewers for the work of Solomon's temple, 



104 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

but was "famous according to his lifting up of the 
axe upon the thick trees ;" neither were the ships 
sent out from the port of Ezion-Geber to Ophir, by 
him, for gold, as a contribution for the same object, 
thought to be cruisers in an unholy cause. But the 
temple was built, and the Lord was pleased to place 
his name there, and even frail humanity in the person 
of the queen of Sheba, immortalized itself in coming 
from a far country to behold the rich evidences of his 
wealth and magnificence. The " love of money " is a 
sin, and from it Demas, one of the early professors of 
Christianity, forsook the faith and returned to the 
world. The unscriptural use of temporal things must 
always result in blinding the mind and hardening 
the heart as the thought or feeling becomes affected. 
With an intellect darkened or obscured, and a heart 
blighted by the aliment it receives, what prospect is 
there of yielding assent and cooperation where the 
grace of God is in question, or loving the things that 
really " make for peace ?" and out of such a labyrinth 
must man be brought before he can clearly perceive 
the truth of the gospel, or feel the love of Christ 
" shed abroad in the heart by the gift of the Holy 
Ghost." With such connexion with the world its 
friendship will be one of regret, and to be clearly 
contrasted with the friendship of God, which secures 
peace. 

The flesh. " To be carnally minded is death," is 
the general charge made in Scripture against the 
second source of evil described by the term flesh. As 
in the former case, however, it must be used in a 
larger and lesser sense, or be so defined as to separate 
the toward and untoward constituents compacted in 



ANTAGONISMS OF FAITH. 105 

it, and prescribe to each its place in the analysis. 
The works of the flesh are quite fully described by 
St. Paul in his Epistle to the Galatians ; and he de- 
clares that they who do such things shall not inherit 
the kingdom of heaven. All works done by men 
while inhabiting this tabernacle of clay are, in some 
less restricted sense, but works of the flesh ; yet the. 
carnality only attaches to them when they are for- 
bidden by God, as being inevitably opposed to the 
very genius of true happiness ; and as the enlightened 
conscience of each man is to be the test in such mat- 
ters — the plain word of Scripture, the unfailing guide 
— the same thing may often be used by one and not 
by another ; the conscience of the one being more ten- 
der, as it is sometimes called, than the other. The 
defilement, therefore, proceeds from within, from the 
heart, (the body being a mere machine, acted on by 
motives, instincts, and passions,) and the portion of 
its exercise constituting the affections and lusts, the 
sentiments and feelings prove fruitful sources of evil 
for time and eternity. In the marks left on the 
creation in the day of the soul's great declension, none 
are so discernible as those exhibited in the fallen na- 
ture, though, as in other things, some remarkable 
traces of the original conception and design in this 
mind and person are left. Thought still " takes the 
wings of the morning, and flies to the uttermost parts 
of earth/' or the eye can beam with delight and the 
heart feel the emotions of joy. Man yet lords it over 
the creature, and walks erect amid the beasts and 
creeping things around him. He is still " the noblest 
work of God;" and while his reason bows him in 
adoration before the Throne on high, the instinct or 

5* 



106 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

lower reasoii of the brute makes him crouch before 
his delegated sway. 

Buined as he is, man can still be made a fit temple 
for the indwelling of the Spirit ; and such changes take 
place in him by the application of externals as to re- 
store him to the "joy of his Lord." But this is not to 
be effected by following the dictates of the flesh, for 
then the evil first wrought would only become worse ; 
but by restraining whatever of natural impulse that 
does not accord with wisdom, and fostering right mo- 
tives as they are seen to arise. Nearly all the different 
stages of enmity to truth and happiness, to be enumer- 
ated as composing the entire opposition on the part of 
the flesh in its broadest signification, are but the re- 
verse of the operation and exercise of faculties whose 
action and use are permissible if there be a good and 
allowable motive for it ; And so it is said that with the 
tongue man both "curses and blesses God." The 
same lineaments of mind with which the pagan pros- 
trates himself before his idol shall he use in worship- 
ping the God who made him. In the same heart that 
affords a seat for proscribed emulation does man nur- 
ture a sentiment to occupy its place that leads him to 
strive naturally and nobly for a proper prize. The 
motive reverses the action, and the former being good 
so is the latter. This good motive none can ever have 
without it be begotten by the grace of God. By be- 
lieving in him, and hence governing the thought and 
affections according to the peculiar rules of wisdom, 
the heart indulges in the exuberance of desire for ad- 
missible objects, whether persons or things. Faith 
finds a great adversary in the blinding effects of 
fleshly appetites and passions; it being the natural 



ANTAGONISMS OF FAITH. 107 

aim of the unrenewed mind to keep man insensible 
to divine, by indulgence in sensible things. The un- 
restrained use of native propensities unavoidably tends 
#o final darkness and death ; but the free and proper 
use of the promptings of the Spirit, in opposition to, 
however dependent upon, the identical organization, 
mental, moral and physical, as assuredly leads to final 
blessedness. 

It will not here be inquired how far the advance- 
ment of the spiritual condition depends upon the chas- 
tisement, by disuse or otherwise, of the more discordant 
or vicious elements in every nature, whether it relate 
to the person, the mind, or the heart. The subject 
of rising from the dead has been amplified by St. Paul 
as plainly and fully as possible, when speaking of 
things so incomprehensible, and the idea is main- 
tained that the body, tenanted by the spirit, is the 
identical one in the necessary respects of discrimina- 
tion that is to join the spirit in heaven — " That it is 
sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body." 
Now it must be inferred from this account, that the 
spiritual body, thus etherealized, is still to preserve a 
certain correspondency with the natural body; that 
the main semblance retained will be moulded anew, 
and raised infinitely above its present beauties or 
adaptations. This admitted, it becomes a question of 
some importance how far man is permitted to injure 
his body, and whether any voluntary affliction can be 
tolerated by the Giver. In it are lodged many things 
of sinful origin, and " the flesh warreth against the 
spirit ;" but how far maceration or other punishment 
or injury is excusable, when in search of an evil that 
lies only in the heart, is another matter. If a body 



108 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

has been furnished, which must forever be his com- 
panion, he is without right to submit it to undue uses, 
or derange its best properties by any act more directly 
voluntary. It is as much a gift as the spirit dwelling 
in it, and there can, in principle, be no more right to 
injure the one than the other. Hence, in view per- 
haps of the idea we are endeavouring to pursue, the ' 
Scriptures urge men to " cherish their bodies." Nor 
can the word cherish, taken in its legitimate sense, 
lead to the encouragement of pride or vanity, but 
rather acting as a corrective of the mind in keeping 
the body pure and complete, refine the feelings and 
sentiments beyond what would otherwise take place 
were the body neglected in the daily attention due it, 
or endangered by gross rashness in a more serious 
manner. " Cleanliness is a virtue/' because by it the 
moral nature is improved and the body developed, or 
at least kept purer; and though the ancient gymnasts 
were accustomed to resort to every means known for 
the purpose of perfecting bodily strength preparatory to 
the race or game, without further motive they were in 
that act doing quite as much to strengthen and give 
sound tone to the mind of the pupil. With the ex- 
ercise and care religious intelligence is able to fur- 
nish the body, its best maturity should be looked for, 
whilst the mind and heart should meet with their best 
direction and growth, as influenced in part by such 
treatment. 

The devil. The last great adversary of man to 
be noticed is called the devil, or Satan ; and were the 
word only to mean the agent of evil, as shown in the 
general derangement of the nature and condition of 
mankind, what has been said concerning the world 



ANTAGONISMS OF FAITH. 109 

and the flesh might seem to cover the entire ground 
of opposition to his immortal interests. But what is 
seen as a more fixed or stationary evil in the heart 
and body of man, and in the disordered state of the 
world at large in its outward features, is by no means 
all the power of this mighty enemy of the soul. With 
less power, of course, than that possessed by God, he is 
nevertheless ubiquitous, and is as much present with 
men in one generation as another. None can escape 
his watchful eye ; nor forget but for a moment the ob- 
ligations due their Maker, without having the fault seen 
by the foe, and improved to his advantage. It is there- 
fore this extraordinary power and vengeful spirit in 
the adversary that is to be reflected on now. It is to 
be borne in mind, that the fountain of sin, first opened 
in the heart of man, is not merely a stagnant pool, 
ever reeking with filth as pent up within, and sending 
out its exhalations through the moral nature. There 
is something more to be considered : the undefecated 
pool, it is true, is there; but there is ever present an 
agent, that is, an active principle of evil, to breathe 
upon the heart, and by suggestion, duplicity, terror, 
or something similar, to put in motion the jarring fig- 
ments of the brain, or the sterner passions of the soul, 
and so "war against it." He is not the enemy of 
original times, who deluded, destroyed, and then re- 
tired into his dark domains of perdition, as having no 
further concern for the children of men. Far from it, 
— he sleeps not for very vigilance, and through his 
eternal activity and unmitigated vengeance, is he en- 
titled to the place assigned him by the Scriptures, 
when detailing the force used against the defenceless 
soul. Though to be seen in the world and the flesh, 



110 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

he is likewise to be seen in character in a kind of dis- 
connected or independent action. Hence, escaping the 
evils in the world, the evils in the flesh, escaping all 
these, the lion himself comes out of his more secret re- 
treat, and with new fury, with unseen strength, with 
exceeding voracity, stands in the way that leads to the 
celestial city. And woe to the faint pilgrim who lacks 
faith in such a crisis, for how shall he escape? But by 
strong faith the lion's mouth shall be shut, and the 
traveller go on his w r ay with songs of triumph on his 
tongue. 

One great means of weakening the faith of the 
Christian is for this adversary to inject fears and ap- 
prehensions in the mind concerning the mercy or will 
of God. Quick as light are these troublesome im- 
pressions made ; and a power invisible, but almost 
seen, appears to await the action of the tempted in 
resisting or yielding to the attack. So great are 
these onsets, at various periods of religious experience, 
that some are accustomed to cry out for the purpose 
of breaking the charm, or assume a bold attitude of 
body as a means of diverting the mind from the delu- 
sion. Incidents of past experience, in detached frag- 
ments, are obtruded on the more regular and proper 
course of thought, and at times the most perverse in- 
sinuations shock the soul. It is only by separating 
these trains of thought, the more regular and good 
from the disconnected and perverted, that the mind 
can discover its true position and see the path lying 
before it. No better means can be used to drive the 
tempter away, when coming in this shape, than to 
unite more closely and fully the thought to God by 
prayer; for frith such effort the mind regains its 



ANTAGONISMS OF FAITH. Ill 

clearness and strength, and the heart is still further 
subdued by the Holy Spirit. These occasions meet 
with a rich reward if the enemy does not triumph, as 
the growth in grace is proportionate to the force of 
the temptation ; and while each successive attack but 
discloses the most usual method of disquieting and 
perplexing the soul, each successful resistance fur- 
nishes the means of new and more vigorous effort. 
But if the heart lacks courage and submits to the 
bold and sudden strokes of policy to be witnessed at 
times by all, the way is comparatively smoothed for 
the progress of the work of ruin. By those only who 
have some religious experience can these observations 
be felt, as the more ordinary temptations afforded by 
the " world and the flesh " are sufficient to beguile the 
sinner. There is a certain system of economics used 
here, and the principle acted upon of only resorting 
to that degree of force in tempting which may prevent 
the soul's salvation. According to the sinner's resist- 
ance will be the means applied for his subjection, and 
hence it is only after an effort is made to be pure and 
holy that the devices of Satan can be understood. 

Faith is the weapon to be used in the defence of the 
troubled soul, and like a soldier enable the Christian 
pilgrim to combat manfully the dreaded enemy. See- 
ing these things are so, what manner of persons ought 
we to be to enable us to stand in the " evil day," 
" and having done all to stand," even then ready, as it 
were, for yet another assault, though it be true that 
as pilgrims they are beyond the territory of sin — 
though within the gate of heaven. 



112 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

CHAPTEK IX. 

FAITH AND WORKS. 

Man in becoming a living soul required the exercise 
of the active elements of his mental and moral being. 
That they were exercised is manifest from the circum- 
stances of the fall alone. His nature at his creation 
was incorrupt ; his soul uncontaminated with sin. 
But the volition consequent upon his mental organi- 
zation required a law of control, and hence the man- 
date from God was given — "Eat not of the forbidden 
fruit, lest ye die." The freedom of will, however, 
which gave rise to the command, led to its infraction. 
Man fell, and the curse ensued. 

But as the legitimate use of a faculty tends to its 
increase of strength, its improper exercise inclines to 
evil. The mind still existed after the fall, but im- 
paired by improper use. The will also remained, yet 
at most not more capable of right exercise than pre- 
viously ; and if so, the necessity continued as great as 
ever for a rule of conduct. Not that the rule should 
necessarily be the same as before the fall, but such 
rather as corresponds with man's low estate ; that is, 
rules of obedience consistent with the covenant of 
grace. 

Faith in God was associated with works of obedience 
before the fall; and faith in Christ, who came to repair 
the evil wrought by sin, is in no less intimate con- 
nexion with them. And as faith could not stand 
without obedience in the first instance, but gave way 



FAITH AND WORKS. 113 

with it, so faith cannot now continue apart from sub- 
jection to the will of Christ. Adam might have stood 
firm by faith and obedience, so may we abide in peace 
and safety by their use ; but as volition led to his 
overthrow, so it will be our undoing if we choose error 
and reject truth. 

The grace to choose the truth was bestowed upon 
Adam. It is bestowed on us. There is a primary 
and a secondary bestowal of grace upon man. With 
the very idea of mental and moral organization is 
associated the primary gift ; with the moral advance- 
ment of man is connected the secondary aid. Now 
the ability to discern between good and evil may exist 
as a dead element ; the spring of action is imparted 
by the auxiliary grace flowing immediately from God. 
The former is more properly an element, not an im- 
pulse ; for there is a measure of light " that lighten- 
ed every man coming into the world." But without 
added grace what does it avail? 

In the fall the graces of the Spirit in man died. 
The element of simple being remained the same as 
before he was a fallen creature; and it was for God 
in mercy to supply the impulsive grace to his soul, 
enabling him, while beholding as at a distance the 
good of life, to put forth his hand and grasp it. That 
grace was supplied, and when the promise was made 
that he might be restored to his lost estate, there came 
with it the power also to choose and obtain the prom- 
ised blessedness. 

With the power to perceive both good and evil, 
which Adam possessed at the moment of the curse, he 
had the knowledge of the good ; but he could only 
put into action the power to choose evil, and that 



114 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

continually. He saw the light, but the ruling pro- 
pensity was to plunge into darkness. He knew both 
good and evil at the moment of eating the fruit. The 
choice, as a mere volition, w-e will suppose to have been 
favourable to truth, he knowing the nature of good ; 
but his involuntary action was favourable to evil, for 
he also knew its nature. 

Impulse to evil he had obtained, impulse to good had 
to be supplied ; and grace being imparted, he was put 
in communication with the source of life: and now 
God being the same — the elements of human nature 
the same— there is a command to obey and live, or 
disobey and die. 

If man believes in one of these alternatives he must 
believe in the other. If he believes in either he as- 
sents to the law placed over him, and while he cannot 
excuse himself from walking in the commandment, 
he cannot seek to palliate his guilt and suffering 
should disobedience prove his ruin. 

God in the first command looked for obedience, and 
under the law of grace in Jesus Christ nothing less 
is expected. But did not Christ come to abolish the 
law of obedience? He saith, "I came not to destroy 
the law, but to fulfil it." But are we not released 
from obligation by the obedience of Christ ? By no 
means ; for human nature remains the same as ever, 
and the " two brethren v declared that they were able 
to drink of the cup that Christ drank of, he assenting 
to their ability to do so : but their request was not to 
be allowed, as it could only be given by the Father to 
them for whom it was prepared. Seeing, therefore, 
there is a will, a way, grace to accompany efforts for 
salvation, and a law to be obeyed, it becomes important 



FAITH AND WORKS. 115 

to understand the dependence of grace upon faith and 
faith upon grace. 

Perfect obedience was required of Adam before the 
fall, and the same will be required of all who enter 
heaven. Imperfect obedience is all that is expected 
here: imperfect as compared with the state of Adam, 
because by the fall the physical, intellectual, and moral 
nature was impaired, and the grace given in this life 
cannot fully restore it ; imperfect, compared with the 
angelic state, because it is only after death that the 
body can be fully purified and cast off its imperfec- 
tions. Not that the existence of these detailed de- 
fects of mind and body is unavoidably sinful, for all 
these misfortunes have been atoned for by Christ; but 
that they will continue, however pure the moral being 
newly created in Christ may be, and follow us to the 
grave. A pure body like Christ's we may assume in 
heaven, but the spirit can only be sufficiently cleansed 
in this life as to bear his image. 

This life is designed to restore man to happiness. 
If Adam was a probationer, the fallen angels, with 
their superior claim to the favour of God, proba- 
tioners, surely it is not to be expected that we could 
be exempted. Man must obey the commands of God. 
Without the exercise of the faculties, their strength 
will be lost or impaired ; the best means of exercise 
has been chosen by Infinite Wisdom : without a belief 
in the existence of such means, or the propriety of 
their use, no effort would be made to use them. A 
knowledge of them, however, leaves the mind to act 
as commanded or not. Faith is supplied to all who 
desire it : and if we could suppose a case of obedience 
without faith, the works would be dead ; or a case of 



116 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

faith without works, if there was time in which to 
perform them, the faith would he dead also. We 
are not to be understood as saying there is any merit 
in works, but only a benefit always arising from the 
best use of the faculties, — the mode of exercise beino; 
prescribed. And still less as advocating the Romanist 
delusion of supererogation, wherein "men declare that 
they do not only render unto God as much as they are 
bound to do, but that they do more for his sake than 
of bounden duty is required:" whereas Christ plainly 
saith, " When ye have done all that is commanded 
you, say, We are unprofitable servants." But believe 
in accordance with our tenth article in the creed, which 
says that, " Although good works, which are the fruits 
of faith, and follow after justification, cannot put away 
our sins, and endure the severity of God's judgments; 
yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, 
and spring out of a true and lively faith ; insomuch 
that by them a lively faith may be as evidently known 
as a tree is discerned by its fruits." That prayer is a 
duty, because necessary and proper. Belief in God is 
a duty, because indispensable to happiness. There is, 
therefore, a kind of virtue connected with these acts — 
the acts not conferring the benefit to go to man's ac- 
count, but to the glory of God. We pray to-day — 
the desire is to pray again to-morrow. The virtue 
lies in the grace to pray, in the first instance, which 
grace is of God through Christ ; man being unable to 
make any effort for good, unless divine impulse be 
given. 

The whole duty of man is the best course of expe- 
rience that could have been devised, as the slightest 
departure from the moral law serves but too often to 



FAITH AND WORKS. 117 

prove. Beginning with the exercise of faith, the 
moral impulse increases ; and faith enlarging, the 
ability to do more increases, until the soul is at 
length found occupying the loftiest position attaina- 
ble — the highest results awaiting the most perfect 
obedience. 

The law of works consists with the circumstances 
of those who are required to obey. The ritual of 
Moses appears perhaps, at first sight, unmeaning or 
useless ; but, viewed in connexion with the times and 
people, it is plain none other would have answered so 
well. In obeying it, they were saved. In keeping 
the xVbrahamic covenant, the patriarchs were saved. 
So in keeping the law of our dispensation, as found in 
the gospel, we shall be saved ; and though it requires 
more of us than the law of ancient times demanded 
of those subject to it, yet, with such assistance as is 
afforded by grace, its requirements are not burden- 
some. 

Think not that because ours is a law of grace, 
Christ has therefore fulfilled for us our part of its 
duties. He has only fulfilled that portion we were 
unable to discharge ; but unless the moral and mental 
being had been changed at the time of the promise, 
as implying absence of the will or choice, destroying 
obligation as free agents, obedience had to be required 
preparatory to holiness and happiness. Who would 
desire to escape this exaction of duty? None who 
ever lived for a brief season in the way of rectitude, 
after suffering the ills of sin. And so general is the 
respect for virtue among men, that the idea of its 
being " its own reward ;; has long since been turned 
into a proverb; being an argument in favour of the 



118 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

Scriptural teaching, that obedience to God's moral law 
is the best rule of human conduct. 

It is natural to imagine that because good results, 
in time and eternity, from works of obedience, the 
virtue lies in them. But the truth is, by looking be- 
yond, there will be seen the grace to which we are in- 
debted for the benefit. From the many instances of 
trial and suffering among the believers in Christ, 
often amounting to martyrdom, it is natural to asso- 
ciate the idea of happiness with them. But no such 
considerations ought to have weight ; for suffering is 
an incident of life, and no happiness can exist to its 
exclusion ; but as there is no virtue in true happiness, 
so there can be none in misery. Whatsoever ills lie 
out of the way of duty, not only may, but should be 
avoided. The trials of St. Paul would confer no 
special benefit upon us, our path lying through far 
less difficulty, and there being no grace applicable to 
any but acts of obedience. We should desire no one's 
trials, without the grace to endure them. 

There is a vague sense in which works of the law 
are said to be counted for righteousness. Obedience 
results from faith ; and when faith is reckoned, works 
are included also. But take away faith from the 
works, and they fall to the ground. " Without faith 
it is impossible to please God." " Abraham believed, 
and it was counted to him for righteousness." He is 
not called virtuous or obedient Abraham, but " faith- 
ful Abraham ;" for there lay the efficacy. It is true, 
when offering up Isaac, obedience was intimately con- 
nected with the faith, but was yet distinct. The world 
could not have had so good and clear an example 
without, as with, this act of obedience ; for the Lord 



FAITH AND WORKS. 119 

had said long before, " I know that Abraham will 
obey ;" but mankind did not know this until they 
saw the deed. He was faithful before, but because he 
had done this thing — setting so high an example to 
future times— he was commended as though the con- 
sideration lay partly in the sacrifice. Man saw the 
marks of obedience ; God saw the exercise of faith. 
Had Abraham died in the way to the place of sacrifice, 
the faith would have been as strong as though he had 
performed the deed ; for the purpose was there, and 
the failure to execute the design, by no will of his 
own, could not have weakened or destroyed it. 

We are to mortify our members, in order that the 
vicious impulses of the heart may be weakened and 
destroyed ; but there is no virtue in this penance en- 
titling it to pardon or favour with God. Such chas- 
tenings as are truly useful are no doubt agreeable to 
the divine will ; but if the value be misappropriated — 
that is, based upon the inherent influence of the act, 
and not upon the grace of God, in which it alone 
originates — the penance becomes sin, and not obedience. 
From the connexion between faith and works, it is not 
surprising that the distinction should be sometimes 
inaccurately drawn, and men build upon the error 
thus begun. Grace cannot abound without mortifica- 
tion to some extent, for the natural man is corrupt; 
but penance may abound independent of grace, and 
be continued without any tendencies to good. The 
priests of Baal were severe in the chastisement of 
themselves, thinking to be approved of their god ; 
but no fire answered their supplications. Balaam but 
called on his God with faith, and the sacrifice was in- 
stantly consumed. 



120 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

The disciples fasted, and this was doubtless an ex- 
ample to us ; but they never so mutilated their per- 
sons or weakened their minds as to unfit them for the 
active duties of life ; and the very requirement of 
self-subjugation being grounded in the mental and 
moral improvement of men, if the pious in the times 
of our Saviour had proceeded further in it than that 
point at which the best ends were obtained, their ab- 
negation itself would have been considered sin, and 
would have met with proper punishment. 

What would be thought of a system of self-govern- 
ment that required us to eat until surfeited ; to in- 
dulge in fancy until the mind was deranged ; and 
engage the soul in devotion until its sensibilities were 
dead, in order to secure and enhance our physical, 
mental, and moral good? There is no philosophy in any 
practice requiring the sinner to punish himself, so as 
to impair his appreciation of his true destiny. The sick 
body nauseates at the sight of the richest food ; the 
imagination clips its wing by soaring too often and too 
high ; the soul becomes listless and dead that has 
been steeped in over-draughts of tears ; and if some 
means were to be ingeniously devised to create dis- 
taste for its devotional exercises, none better could be 
found than such as block up the every way to heaven, 
by setting before it, as a chastisement, the duty and 
performance of tedious prayers, as witnessed in the 
Eoman Church : especially when the punishment is 
to be increased in proportion to the offender's neglect, 
and when full attendance would perhaps destroy the 
soul by deranging or destroying its energies, and no 
attendance at all on such rite, when sacredly con- 
sidered, keep the spirit forever from the very entrance 



FAITH AND WORKS. 121 

into light and favour with God. Extremes always 
meet, and great prudence is required to preserve the 
happy medium in this, as in other duties of life. 

John came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 
saying, " Prepare ye the way of the Lord ; make his 
paths straight." "And his meat was locusts and wild 
honey ; his dress, camel's hair, with a leathern girdle." 
He came to make straight the way to Christ. The 
feasts and banquetings of heathen religion were to be 
discountenanced in the system now to be introduced. 
The false notions of the Jews themselves concerning the 
glorious and princely kingdom to be set up, were to be 
derided, as altogether mistaking the manner or real 
purpose of the Messiah in his intended reign on earth. 
The crooked ways of all were to be straightened and 
conformed to this way. But the self-denial of John 
did not constitute the religion he preached ; his food 
nor raiment were to be alone used by such as adopted 
the same system of religion ; for whilst he was pro- 
claiming the doctrine of repentance in the mountains 
of Judea, Christ himself — the Truth, the Life, the Way 
— was in the cities, eating and drinking with publicans 
and sinners, and habited like the disciples. And so 
all classes and conditions of men were fully met with 
the antidote to their sufferings : the gospel was 
preached to all. The anchorite, dwelling in the seclu- 
sion of the hill-country, heard it ; and it was also list- 
ened to by the doctors and lawyers, the rich and the 
great, inhabiting the towns and cities along the coasts. 
None could be offended in him, as mere externals could 
not debar their coming freely to the Master, whose 
kingdom did not, as it appeared, "consist of meat and 
drink/ 7 but of righteousness and true holiness. The 



122 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH, 

poorest and meanest, though clad in rags and almost 
destitute of food, with the rich in the abundance they 
possessed, were alike to partake of the blessings of the 
gospel. The path was, therefore, made straight, but 
not blocked up or destroyed. The same grounded prin- 
ciples that existed before the flood were not molested. 
As the mountains continued to stand around Jerusa- 
lem, so these stood. The atonement by Christ for the 
sins of the world did not place man beyond the do- 
minion of all law, nor subject him to the perfect 
obedience of any law. A kingdom was to be estab- 
lished in the earth, but it was to be planted in the 
soul ; and that conduct was required on the part of 
man which would most rationally conduce to his hap- 
piness in the obedience to be shown to the gospel. 



CHAPTEE X. 

INCREASE AND DIMINUTION OF FAITH. 

The bird learns to fly fearlessly by means of the 
pupilage of short and easy circles around its nest : 
the eagle that perches upon the dizzy height, or soars 
along the verge of the storm-cloud, at first plumed 
his delicate wino; with trembling;. The confidence at 
first wanting in these efforts was supplied by example 
and encouragement. Trial begat new energy and 
purpose, new strength of wing and heart, and the de- 
signs were daily matured. 

It is the beaming eye, extended hand, and inspirit- 
ing voice, that enables the child to take yet another tot- 
tering step — the process repeated, that gives firmness 



FAITH INCREASED AND DIMINISHED. 123 

and assurance to the tread, and finally enables him 
to sally forth with all the buoyancy of manhood. 

It is ascertained that by use the muscles of the 
body have their size and strength increased. The 
arm that lifts the hammer at the forge, or swings the 
axe among the sturdy trees, will have more vigour 
than that of the student. Not only so, but the limbs 
mostly used increase in strength to the diminution in 
vigour of such as are comparatively idle. 

It is from similar causes that the organs of the 
mind derive strength and activity from exercise, and 
suffer a consequent diminution from disuse. So that 
while one mind develops astonishing vigour, another 
is only of ordinary strength, or dwarfed into distress- 
ing ignorance. The affections of the mind are gov- 
erned by similar laws of growth or decay, and when 
brought into constant play become vigorous, whilst 
others, neglected, are weakened or destroyed. 

Now as the child has its energies increased by the 
confidence inspired by earnest and devoted teaching, 
so the mind of man goes on from strength to strength 
by reason of encouragement to action. The poet 
fancies he hears the troubadour chanting his lay to 
the anxious ear of beauty, and invokes anew the aid 
of his muse. The sculptor and painter imagine they 
see their living images in the niche and fane of proud- 
est temples, and they continue their toils with renewed 
courage. The soldier dreams of embracing his far- 
absent wife and children, in view of his cottage home, 
and his affections glow stronger than ever, while he 
wakes to war with the tear in his eye. 

There is a confidence inspired from associating with 
our fellow-men. This is of every-day occurrence. He 



124 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

who never deceives is never doubted. The faithful 
friend of life is a source of constant and abiding trust. 
How much more is confidence in divine things en- 
larged by the daily observation of the course of na- 
ture and the spiritual discernment of the mysteries 
of religion. The sun rises, and the eye beholds him 
go down in glory behind the western hills with a be- 
lief that he will rise again. The last rose of summer 
is plucked, and fades, with the persuasion that return- 
ing spring will again beautify the earth with the 
queen of flowers. The heart pines for tranquillity 
and peace, the Spirit soothes it with the balm of grace, 
and when sorrow returns, the heart flies to God for 
comfort again. Like as confidence is increased be- 
tween man and man, the mind is linked to God in 
unyielding trust. And as the realization of promise 
after promise is enjoyed, the belief in the mercy and 
power of God is enlarged. By exercising faith in 
God, we therefore become more able and prone to be- 
lieve. Though a law of being, it can never become a 
moral necessity for man to put confidence in man ; not 
because of innate suspicion that he may prove false, 
but that faith is voluntary and coercive ; and though 
it may increase till apparently nothing can shake it, 
yet is possible to withdraw it. But in the unchange- 
able promises of God there is a surer trust than any- 
thing earthly deserves, and the soul reposes with 
peculiar confidence in them ; yet the belief is volun- 
tary, and may by disobedience be destroyed. Were 
earthly friendship or love to God involuntary emo- 
tions, the one could never be broken nor the other 
fail. But it being otherwise, effort is needed to main- 
tain both. 



FAITH INCREASED AND DIMINISHED. 125 

By the exercise of an emotion it "becomes easier to 
exercise it again, and by disuse the power to use is 
diminished. This admitted,' there is cause for confi- 
dence with the pious, as every effort at obedience but 
the better fits them for duty. So considering the 
traveller to eternity as making each act of faith and 
obedience a remove in the direction of heaven, and at 
the same time a like remove from destruction, the 
pilgrimage of the pious becomes exciting and hopeful, 
or harrowing and doubtful. The last step must be 
taken that affects deliverance or ruin. All have their 
faces Zionward, or are hastening towards destruction. 
Each of us is now at some point in this way to life or 
death ! 

The Saviour is represented as being ready to draw 
nigh to those who draw nigh to him. The expression 
sets in a clear light the power of use and disuse of the 
moral faculties. By this figure the idea is conveyed 
that a step in the journey towards heaven sets the 
foot doubly that distance from ruin ; and by employ- 
ing the faculties in the service of God, the prospect 
becomes brighter and brighter as the journey extends ; 
that God advances as we move towards him, and 
every step on our part is answered by approaching 
help. But if we recede, God also recedes from us; 
and the road to destruction becomes shorter and 
shorter, with accelerated despatch. For, observes 
Wayland, " The repetition of a virtuous act produces 
a tendency to continued repetition ; the force of oppos- 
ing motives is lessened ; the power of the will over 
passion is more decided, and the act is accomplished 
with less moral effort." And, " on the contrary, by 
repetition of vicious acts, a tendency is created towards 



126 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

such repetition." Hence, " the practice of virtue 
seems to tend towards rendering a man incapable of 
vice, and the practice of vice towards rendering a man 
incapable of virtue." That " the constitution under 
which we are placed presents us with the apparent 
paradox of a state of incessant moral change, in which 
every individual change has a tendency to produce a 
state that is unchangeable." 

Therefore it has also been said, " To him that hath, 
shall be given ; but from him that hath not, shall be 
taken away even that which he seemeth to have." 
And that " he will give grace for grace." That is, 
the use of the means of grace expedites the progress 
of the soul, while the neglect of them causes the soul 
to depart from light and strength. Or, that for every 
step taken in the divine life, the next shall be the 
more easily taken and maintained. This idea of con- 
stant progress towards the end of the race would seem 
to suggest that there must be a time and a point at 
which the impulses would be only favourably acceler- 
ative ; that by the law of forces, the one advancing 
and the other retiring, the period would soon follow 
when the losing power would fail and the gaining one 
succeed. But though the law of increase and dimi- 
nution applies here, yet as life is only probationary, 
commencing with voluntary emotions, it must termi- 
nate with the will still in use, and some outward or 
inward influences antagonistic to peace must still be 
felt. " The more we exercise love and trust in God," 
says Madame Guyon, " the more we shall be likely to 
exercise them. The powerful law of habit, which is 
continually in exercise, gives new strength clay by 
day. And this is not all. The more the soul becomes 



FAITH INCREASED AND DIMINISHED. 127 

like God, the more clearly it discerns God's excel- 
lences, and the more distinctly and fully it feels his 
attracting power." Never, however, in this life, can 
obedience so fix the destiny of man as to put him be- 
yond the ability to sin ; nor disobedience ever so para- 
lyze the heart as to shut it up in the prison of total 
despair. 

To any who reflect, it will appear that there is a 
little world within us, in opposition or contradistinc- 
tion to the world of visible and tangible objects with- 
out. He v/ho attends mostly to externals will usually, 
if not always, be less sensible of the emotions consti- 
tuting the spiritual man. And, on the contrary, he 
who studies himself most will pay the least attention 
to what is going on without. So there is a conscious- 
ness every moment of two natures in one man — out- 
ward and inward ; the one relating to matter, as we 
may for conciseness term it, the other to the spirit. 
Now the disposition to become absorbed in the opera- 
tions of the inner world spoken of merges into habit, 
just as sensible habits are formed; and he who studies 
himself to-day will incline to do so to-morrow. And 
not only so, but while the spirit is contracting this 
habit of reflection peculiar to its organization, the 
adverse habit of sensible or physical thought is dimin- 
ishing ; and although no length of life can effect a 
change so great as to reverse the degree of nature in 
causing man to be entirely abstracted from externals, 
and perfectly devoted to spiritual things, yet the for- 
getfulness of temporalities may become so complete 
as to render them altogether secondary to the main 
object of life. For the eye will see and the ear hear 
the sights and sounds around them ; and it is only in 



128 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

death, when the avenues of sense are closed, that 
the one kind of nature fails and the other stands ma- 
tured. 

Now as the worldly-minded attach confidence in 
their friends — those who have never deceived ; or in 
events that have proved of unfailing occurrence, pro- 
portionate to their experience, so spiritual things are 
the more believed in as they become more tried. And 
when faith is considerably matured, it is as easy to 
believe God in one of his declarations as another, and 
that miracles are as easily performed by one possess- 
ing all power as not performed — the exercise of power 
simply depending upon the will of God. The only 
query is, Do events justify extraordinary displays of 
such attribute ? If so, then faith may secure them ; 
but if not, they cannot be secured. The economy of 
God's government is such that when the ordinary 
methods of existence suffice, no change is resorted to; 
hence the mind, not impressed with the necessity of 
extraordinary providences, cannot demand or ask 
them. The faith of Samson in pulling down the 
Philistines' temple must have been dependent on this 
principle. He saw that the glory of God would be 
promoted by this overthrow, but yet at the forfeit of 
his life. Had he seen only the propriety of the destruc- 
tion of his enemies, it would perhaps have been impossi- 
ble for him to exercise such faith ; but by including his 
own death, the design of God was made complete, and 
it rendered an instance calling for miraculous inter- 
ference. So when Abraham had reduced the number 
of righteous men in Sodom to ten, we may suppose 
his faith to have failed ; for if only so few out of so 
many were pious, it appeared best for the interests of 



FAITH INCREASED AND DIMINISHED. 129 

God's kingdom that tlie city be doomed to destruc- 
tion, nor did he dare to intercede further in its behalf, 
though his kindred would suffer. When Ananias and 
Sapphira were both destroyed in one day for their 
falsehood, Peter's faith depended upon the glaring 
enormity of the case. Stephen's faith did not save 
him from being stoned to death ; so mature was it 
that it w^ent beyond a request for longer life : and 
with his conceptions of the glory of God to be secured 
by his death, we may doubt whether he could have 
exercised it only in such degree as looked merely to 
his release from his enemies ; but that with the far- 
sighted discriminations of his judgment his faith kept 
pace ; and when he felt as if his last sermon had been 
preached, and saw the vision of an open heaven, with 
the Saviour welcoming him, he could but kneel before 
his murderers and pray for his departure. 

According to our faith, so must it be done unto us : 
this is the word of God. The results, therefore, de- 
pendent upon the exercise of human faith being so 
awfully great, it is reasonable to suppose that nothing 
but genuine faith can answer such ends. For exam- 
ple: when the Saviour, in exemplifying the subject, 
said that if those who heard him had faith only as a 
grain of mustard-seed, or in the smallest degree, they 
might say to the sycamore-tree, " Be thou removed 
and planted in the sea, it should obey," he did not 
mean to teach that the voluntary word of faith could, 
produce such a result, for without an end correspond- 
ing with such means in view, the person exercising 
faith would fail in his attempt. As in a more com- 
mon sense, so in this particular also faith may be held 
to be the gift of God, none being able to exercise a 

6* 



130 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

faith incompatible with his will and glory. And it is 
reasonable that a faith apprehensive of the scope of 
the circumstances attending its use, or dependent 
upon a present palpable want of such dignity, and so 
sensibly felt as to attract divine regard, should be the 
gift of infinite wisdom only, however its' exercise may 
be based upon the voluntary disposition of so using 
the benefit of grace, willingly bestowed, as to mature 
a faith answering the very highest aims of life. There- 
fore, departing from this rule, in essaying " to move 
mountains into the deep " by the mere word of faith, 
we should find no response to prayer. 

We may in like manner, in times of sudden distress, 
call on Gocl for relief; but having no candid desire or 
conception of the nature or extent of the trouble, no 
hand is stretched out for deliverance ; whilst others, 
slightly discerning the character of their wants, and 
the remedy required, solicit aid and find it. So much 
so that often, no doubt, a prayer made in candour, 
but without a sufficient appreciation of its aim, is held 
in divine remembrance without answer, until more 
intelligence is gained respecting the benefits required. 
Hence Ave often see mourners at the altar, seriously 
and urgently making requests unto God for pardon, 
with the pious zeal of the Church to aid them in the 
exercises of devotion, without their conversion imme- 
diately; or such as are seeking perfect love wait long 
for that blessing. 

This leads us into a curious speculation concerning 
the philosophy and exercise of faith in most or all 
cases cited in the New Testament where cures were 
wrought. Begging the reader to bear in mind the 
foregoing reflections, let us turn attention to some 



FAITH INCREASED AND DIMINISHED. 131 

of those miracles performed by our blessed Saviour 
during his ministry. And, 

First " When Jesus was entered into Capernaum, 
there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, say- 
ing, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, 
grievously tormented. And Jesus saith unto him, I 
will come and heal him. The centurion answered and 
said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouidst come 
under my roof; but speak the word only, and my ser- 
vant shall be healed. . . . And Jesus said unto 
the centurion, Go thy way; as thou hast believed, so 
be it unto thee." 

/Second, " Behold there came a certain ruler and 
worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now 
dead ; but come and lay thy hand on her and she shall 
live." 

Third. "And behold a woman which was diseased 
with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him 
and touched the hem of his garment ; for she said 
within herself, If I may but touch his garment I shall 
be ivhole. And he said, Daughter, be of good comfort, 
thy faith hath made thee whole." 

Fourth. "And when he had come into the house, 
the blind men came unto him : and Jesus saith unto 
them, Believe ye that I am able to do this ? They 
said unto him, Yea, Lord. Then he touched their 
eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you. 
And their eyes were opened." 

Fifth. "Then he saith to the man, Stretch forth thy 
hand. And he stretched it forth ; and it was made 
ivhole like as the other." 

Sixth. "And it came to pass, that as he came nigh 
unto Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the wayside, 



132 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

begging. And Jesus saith unto him, What wilt thou 
that I should do unto thee? And he said, Lord, that 
I may receive my sight And Jesus said unto him, 
Receive thy sight ; thy faith hath saved theeP 

1. It may be observed, in regard to the first miracle, 
that the centurion was an humble man, as shown in 
not desiring the Saviour to enter his house. He was 
also a man of exceeding faith, insomuch that the Sav- 
iour marvelled at it. It will be further perceived 
that the Saviour's replies correspond precisely with 
the centurion's requests. His servant was at home, 
sick with the palsy: the reply was, " I will come and 
heal him." And had the centurion's faith been suffi- 
cient only to enable him to invite our Lord to his 
house, the miracle would no doubt have been per- 
formed there alone ; but his humility opposed the idea 
of his entering under his roof; yea, as his own ser- 
vants were accustomed to do his bidding, it appeared 
no less reasonable that the Saviour, being in author- 
ity over all, should do likewise, and that at his bid- 
ding only the servant would be healed. Jesus re- 
plied, As he desired so should it be. He was therefore 
healed in the self-same hour. 

2. The ruler prayed the Saviour to go to his house, 
and not only so, but to lay his hand on his daughter, 
who was dead, in order that she might live. To have 
asked the Saviour to go to his house would have be- 
trayed only a moderate degree of faith ; weaker still 
in asking him to touch the child in order to recovery. 
But, under such circumstances, what was to be done? 
His faith was insufficient to heal her there : the Sav- 
iour had taught, in similar instances, that according 
to faith should the miraculous power be supplied ; 



a 



FAITH INCREASED AND DIMINISHED. 138 

that faith could only conceive of his ability to heal in 
the immediate presence of the subject ; and hence, 
giving no instantaneous command to rise from the 
dead, the Saviour went, touched the body, saying, 
" Maid, arise !" and she sat up. 

3. Without touching the hem of the Saviour's 
garment, the woman did not suppose she could be 
healed. Had she so believed, however, no doubt her 
plague would have been instantly removed. It suffi- 
ces our purpose to contend only for a clear and dis- 
tinct apprehension of want in this and the preceding 
case: and this was certainly felt, for the ruler "fell 
down at the feet of Jesus, and worshipping," prayed 
him " to heal his only daughter ;" while the woman 
was not kept back by the multitude from pressing 
forward and touching his garment, saying within her- 
self, " If I but touch the hem of his garment I shall 
be made whole." 

4. Here no other evidence of faith is shown than 
that of " stretching out the hand." We may suppose 
this to have been tacitly obeying and declaring a be- 
lief in Christ's healing power. Who will presume to 
say that, had he refused, or acted capriciously, his 
hand would have been restored whole as the other ? 

5. In the last case the question is directly put to 
the blind man, what he desired. He thinks it evi- 
dent, and replies, " receive my sight," and Jesus saith 
unto him, Eeceive it — " thy faith hath saved thee." 

Now it being manifest that the Saviour recognised 
degrees of faith, and in some instances meted out 
blessings according to its strength, it may serve to 
assure us that in other cases, less clearly developed 
by the sacred history, there was likewise the same 



134 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

regard paid to the measure of faith in exercise. The 
subjects healed may have inwardly shown a faith in 
Christ unexcelled by that in the examples recorded. 

But we design going a step further in this investi- 
gation, and suggest the idea that, in those cases men- 
tioned, each individual exercised all the faith possible 
at the moment of the cure, and that it was as natural 
to exercise the degree of it used in the one instance 
as in the others. That is, that Jairus did not possess 
as much faith as the centurion ; nor did the latter 
believe only as the former : that the faith of Jairifs 
could not have been more, nor the centurion's less, 
than it was at the moment it was brought to bear on 
the subject of their petitions ; and that had it been 
more or less it would not have been answered. Be- 
cause had Jairus had more than he appeared to have, 
by only requiring the Lord" to heal his daughter at 
home in her presence, he would have asked less than 
he knew the Saviour could perform, which in candour 
he could not have done ; for if he wished to glorify 
God, he would have taken every step in his power to 
do so; and this surely not by failing to test the 
miraculous power of Christ. Nor would the centu- 
rion demand less than he believed the Saviour was 
able to perform. He believed it to be unnecessary 
for him to delay the cure by journeying to the house, 
but that by speaking the word where they were, the 
Saviour's power would be felt. They were both can- 
did men ; they showed the full extent of their faith. 
But why could not the one believe as strongly as the 
other ? Not for the reason that the one was a more 
aggravated case of misfortune than the other, for 
then the centurion's faith would have been less, and 



FAITH INCREASED AND DIMINISHED. 135 

the ruler's greater than it was ; for while it was only 
the centurion's servant that was sick, and that too 
with the palsy only, the ruler's daughter lay dying ! 
Yet with all the motive actuating the latter, he did 
not "believe so fully in Christ as the former. They 
were both true believers, however ; and as faith does 
not depend so much upon exigency as upon its previous 
growth, it must not be expected that one unaccus- 
tomed to its use, and inexperienced in the duties of 
obedience, can in a moment measure strength with 
the patriarch in faith. Abraham's faith did not 
spring up in a moment, and entitle him to be called 
the father of the faithful. Paul had not kept the 
faith in one instance only, but he had gone on from 
strength to strength, till he could give a terrible 
catalogue of trials and sufferings, and was then about 
to be offered up a sacrifice to the cause of truth. 

The mind must be prepared by training for the 
greatest exercise of faith ; and though each succes- 
sive stage of it is perfect, and can be no more so, yet 
as the Fountain of strength is infinite, and can by no 
means be exhausted, it is reasonable to suppose that 
the higher the degree of faith the greater the results. 
We cannot, at a moment's warning, exercise the faith 
of more experienced and better men, however certainly 
we may pursue and finally attain the point they have 
gained. And so much is this principle at work in the 
soul, that the whole body of Christians may be repre- 
sented as oscillating in the scale of belief; and while 
one gains, but unfortunately recedes by disobedience 
and falls behind, another pushes on and takes his 
place. Never stationary, faith must therefore be 
stronger or weaker ; and those who are not advancing 



136 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

are certainly retrograding. The prayer of old lias, 
therefore, been, " Increase our faith." 

But let us consider the highest results, in this life, 
from the exercise of faith, and tlie extent to which, 
by disuse, it may be weakened. Enoch was trans- 
lated ; Abraham was the friend of God ; Moses the 
lawgiver to the children of Israel ; Joshua and Caleb 
went over to the promised land; Elijah was conveyed 
to heaven in a fiery chariot ; Daniel was preserved 
alive in the lion's den ; the Hebrew children were un- 
scorched by the furnace, though heated seven times 
hotter than usual ; the thief on the cross was saved 
while in the agonies of expiring nature ; Paul sur- 
vived a host of dangers and deaths ; John saw things 
unutterable in the isle of his banishment. 

It can never perhaps be ascertained what particular 
purpose God had in view in the translation of Enoch, 
but we have the assurance that his conduct pleased 
him, for it is expressly stated he had this confidence. 

It may have been that his obedience was so perfect 
that no offence was to be found in him. But without 
faith it is impossible to please God, and therefore he 
must have possessed it also. But as everything is 
begun and ended in faith, he must have excelled in 
it, and had clearer visions of the eternal world than 
others of that day. No change of death passed upon 
him — the common lot of all ; no need of the trump at 
the last day to awake him from the slumberings of 
ages ; he rose above the earth in holy triumph, with 
his eye of faith fixed steadily on the throne, and his 
natural eye perhaps not noting the things of time. 
With the rapt vision of John the divine, but a faith 
more vigorous, he stopped not in the third heavens to 



FAITH INCREASED AND DIMINISHED. 137 

hear " things " only " unutterable," but gazed into 
the further regions of light, and awoke no more to 
earthly scenes. 

John's faith was indeed mature ; he had ever been 
deeply and sensitively devoted to his divine Master — 
had a nature soft and pliable to the finer touches of 
grace; nor should we wonder that his solitude in Pat- 
mos, imbuing him with a sense of the presence of 
Divinity, that with long and lonely gazings at the 
heavens, that with mute but speaking orisons day by 
day, he should be exalted above the grosser things of 
life, and be elected by God to fill up the last page of 
the destiny of man with the mixed language of heaven 
and earth. But John was an infant of clays, not num- 
bering his five-score years, and though experiencing 
much of the grace of God, was yet only able to rise in 
part to heaven while in the flesh. Enoch had made 
the full circle of years ; his locks had whitened in the 
roll of centuries ; his feet had trodden mountains 
almost grown gray in his time ; and with piety in 
childhood, in middle life, in such old age is it strange 
that his love to God was great ; that ever exercising 
a living faith, and ever obedient, he should so purify 
his heart, and etherialize his frame, as to rise by the 
power of divine love to the presence of the heavenly 
majesty? In his exaltation let us take courage, and 
prove the excellence and power of faith. 

Had Methusaleh possessed the faith and obedience 
of the father, and gone on from step to step in ex- 
perience, may it not be reasonably supposed, that 
although he might not have been taken to God, he 
nevertheless would have towered above his fellow-men ; 
and while the traditioner of a thousand years, hand- 



138 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

ing down the memorials of the times of Mahalaleel to 
those of Noah, appeared to future ages as an angel 
of light looming in the midst of the heavens ? 

Abraham also had faith. He had gone up higher 
and higher in the ascending scale, until the com- 
mon events of life were unable to prove the degree 
of faith he possessed. To tell him in his younger 
3 r ears, when his frame was strong, that his seed should 
equal the stars in number, and though poor, and in 
the land of strangers, he should yet possess the whole 
country before him, was to hear him answer, " I be- 
lieve." His faith, so strong, must have some greater 
tests, and God has always ready events to test the 
most vigorous exercise of it, and gladly sees its prog- 
ress in strength : so in the decline of life, when weak- 
ened by infirmity, and Sarah was also getting old, he 
was told to take " his son, his only son," and offer him 
up as a sacrifice. This was indeed a test ! Where was 
another heir to gladden his old age ? where another 
to hand down his name to posterity, and in whom to 
have God's covenant kept? It was his only son, and 
likely to remain so. But the undaunted patriarch 
tells him to bind up the wood and follow him. Isaac 
saw the altar and the fire, but no lamb for the sacri- 
fice. " Father, behold the fire and the wood, but 
w r here is the lamb for the burnt-offering?" But God 
was to be obeyed, and the eye of innocence, beaming 
on him from off that sacred altar, must not melt the 
father's heart. A triumphant day was that for faith, 
and for faithful Abraham : a triumphant day for 
heaven — for earth. For the voice was heard from on 
earth, " Because thou hast done this thing, blessing, I 
will bless thee, and in multiplying, I will multiply 



FAITH INCREASED AND DIMINISHED. 139 

thee." Former promises must be renewed, and new 
delight manifested by God at such astonishing faith. 
And the patriarch returned to his home rich in hope, 
whilst Isaac came laden, not with the wood he bore to 
the mountains of Moriah, but the memorials of a lus- 
trous future. 

With such examples, what need of comment on the 
faith of Moses, Elijah, Daniel, and others — all speak- 
ing one language, and dependent on the same princi- 
ples? It is manifest, from human history, that there is 
no limit to the exercise of faith ; for through it the 
soul and body, united, have been raised directly to 
heaven ; and by a less degree of it we assume man 
has been seen to rise above the bounds of ordinary 
vision, and talk with the angels around the throne, 
" whether in the body or out of it," St. Paul says, "he 
could not tell." 

Paine declared that " the age of miracles had passed 
away." This is the sentiment of a giant mind ; but 
is it true ? Miracles can never be an interruption of 
the course of nature, though adverse to it. They are 
accessories, not antagonisms, to truth. They are as 
easily permitted as not, at the will of God. They de- 
range no purpose of his in heaven or earth. Human- 
ity has been identical in all ages ; nature has ever 
been the same in its primary character. God is ever 
the same. Miracles have been used in divers ages. 
They have often, shall we say always, been subject to, 
and dependent upon, human faith. Have, then, the 
days of miracles gone by? If human faith is the 
same, nature the same, God the same as heretofore, 
what the character of its results when duly exercised ? 
We indeed often hear of the most wonderful events in 



140 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OP PAITH. 

life : some are saved from shipwreck, some from other 
perils. Some, bent on foul design, are unable to ac- 
complish it by some terrible disaster ; and often are 
they termed miracles, as being out of the ordinary 
course of things. The understanding dictates a name 
to great wonders, while the heart is often engaged 
with their origin and results. Does not the nation 
assemble in time of sad distress to invoke a change in 
its condition ? Do pious mothers ever pray in secret 
for the safety of their children while on the sea? 
Does the affection of the maiden for her wandering 
lover never mix with its pathos the silent prayer ? 

God directs the whirlwind and the storm now as in 
the days of old : he hears the prayer of faith now as 
in former times. May he not answer by fire, by 
sword, by famine, by safety, peace, judgment, and 
mercy? We dare not say that the days of miracles 
are gone by — though w r e behold them not now as for- 
merly. Produce the faith of patriarch and prophet, 
of the apostles and men of pious renown, and let us 
see if there be no voice to come up from the depths of 
wisdom ; no angels seen ascending and descending to 
bring comfort to the heart of man, and show him the 
way to heaven. 

But we now turn to the results of faith when not 
continued in exercise — to the condition of the soul 
without its benefits. Reason tells us they must be 
unlike the cases already considered. It tells us more ; 
that those results should be opposite in every respect. 
Saul, when crowned king of Israel by Elijah, had faith 
in God. But what was Saul when laid along the 
ground in the cave of the witch of Endor ? He was 
as a dead man. The dark spirit had left its work 



FAITH INCREASED AND DIMINISHED. 141 

upon him. The light that had brightly burned in 
him had fled ; no melody of David's harp could allay 
his fears, or assuage his grief. There was no spirit 
left in him, and darkness had covered his soul before 
he shrouded his head with the mantle. 

At one time, a mighty man of valour ; the song 
of his triumphs was sounded in the land, saying, "he 
had slain his thousands ;" but now afraid to look upon 
the face of Samuel's spirit. The fame, once exulting 
in more than common strength and height, now 
quaked at the sight of the harmless dead ! and ere 
long the song went up from Mount Gilboa, chanted 
by every tongue, " that a mighty one had fallen in 
Israel/' 

When the Lord appeared to Solomon in Gibeon, in 
a dream by night, saying, "Ask what I shall give 
thee ;" and gave unto him, in answer to his request, 
a wise and understanding heart — it was a happy day 
for the son of David. But the day that Solomon 
stood before the altar of the Lord, in the presence of 
the whole congregation of Israel, and, spreading forth 
his hands towards heaven, invoking the blessing of God 
upon the house he had builded, was answered by rich 
tokens of favour, was prouder still. Though never 
possessing the faith of David his father, yet Solomon 
had at this time much faith ; and had he gone on to 
improve it by walking in the commandments of the 
Lord, as directed, and as he impliedly agreed to do, 
his fame at the last would have far exceeded it at the 
beginning. But he linked his fate with the house of 
Pharaoh, and, by gradual decay in piety, he, in a 
short time, tarnished the glory of his youth. The 
kingdom was wrested from his grasp, and given to 



142 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

Jeroboam, his servant, who reigned in his stead. As 
he rose to eminence, so he fell : rising by honouring 
the name of God, and walking in his ways ; falling 
by neglect of obedience and fear into much sin and 
degradation, with no evidence on record that the man 
so highly favoured with wisdom and riches was re- 
stored to the good will of his Maker. 

Judas received the same commission, to preach the 
gospel and heal diseases, as the other disciples ; and 
there is no authority for supposing he had not the 
same grace given him to fulfil his duty. But the 
devil put it into his heart to betray the Son of Man, 
and he followed the guidance of the evil spirit. Ava- 
rice was his weak point, and he heard with delight 
the offer of the thirty pieces of silver — the price that 
bought his own soul and secured the betrayal of 
Christ. To a man unused to money or scrip, or even 
a change of raiment, such sum appeared a boon, and 
he secretly covenanted with the eager bargainers. 
Defection must have existed some time previous to the 
betrayal : he must have reached the depth of his in- 
famy by some gradation. Had he never any faith in 
Christ ? He was chosen one of the twelve, and by 
whom? By the disciples? No ; but by Christ. And 
when sent out two by two, before his face, no distinc- 
tions were drawn between the "twelve." The com- 
mand given to one was given to all. The ministry 
of the Church then began: different temperaments 
and qualities of mind being seen in those who were 
sent, suitable to the variety of taste and disposition 
natural among men ; but there is no evidence that 
Judas Iscariot possessed none of the qualities of heart 
needed in the office he assumed. He was treasurer 



FAITH INCREASED AND DIMINISHED. 143 

of the little band, "but was commanded to go and 
teach the people. The faith of Judas must therefore 
have failed, bringing upon him the deepest despair. 
He " fell by transgression," by his own will, and not 
by the will of God. 

As man rises higher in the scale of spiritual free- 
dom and power, so does he decline. Faith leads to 
faith as the soul strives to exercise it, and by acceler- 
ated impulse is, ere long, firmly united to the Source 
of strength. But the disuse of it leads to further 
disuse; the power to exercise it is diminished; the 
desire to do so weakened, and thick clouds by-and-by 
gather around the victim's head with deadness at the 
heart ; and falling, failing, hoping, doubting, grasp- 
ing at the stars, then the earth, half praying, half 
cursing, half living, half dying, the soul finally gath- 
ers the mantle of night about it, and by the last deed 
of iniquity, whether known to man or only to God, 
filling up the measure of life, it plunges into the vor- 
tex of woe. 



Sutfttft fart 



CHAPTEE I. 

ANCIENT AND MODERN FAITH SCRIPTURALLY COMPARED. 

The ancients may be represented as looking forward 
to the promise of a Saviour made at the fall ; and 
although this object of hope was seen but dimly 
through the lapse of future ages, yet it stood elevated 
above all intervening things as the most worthy of 
observation. As when the traveller sets his eye upon 
some mountain-top, in the far distance, and often turns 
to gaze upon the towering object, so may we suppose 
the early successors of Adam, with their long train of 
descendants, looked to the time when Christ should 
appear, to deliver his people from their sins. 

In like manner, all living since that great event 
look back to the time when the Saviour was sus- 
pended between heaven and earth, and take not the 
eye from the object in which centres all hope, all life, 
all love. 

Our fathers looked forward, and we backward, to 
the cross, and equally interested in its virtue in sav- 
ing from the penalty of sin. It is as if the hopeful 
of all ages, from the time of the fall until they of the 
last generation shall pass away, were crowding around 



ANCIENT AND MODERN FAITH COMPARED. 145 

the one great Sin-offering, once offered up, and all 
eager to see the victim for the atonement, and assure 
themselves of his death and resurrection, that they 
might enjoy the blessed prospect of heaven. 

" The scheme of prophecy," says Dr. Home, " consid- 
ered in its first opening, its gradual advance, and its 
final and full completion in the advent, the ministry, 
the death and resurrection of the Messiah, and the ex- 
tensive progress of the gospel among the Gentiles, 
together with its blessed influences on individuals, 
societies, countries, and the whole race of mankind, is 
an object the greatest and most sublime that imagin- 
ation can conceive, and the most pleasing and import- 
ant the human mind can contemplate. To Jesus give 
all the prophets witness ; and around him they throw 
the beams of their united light." 

In considering this subject we propose noticing: 
I. The evidence upon which the ancients based their 
faith in the Messiah. II. The results of that faith 
upon their lives and history. III. The evidence pos- 
sessed by moderns ; and, IV. Its effects. 

From the prompt execution of the punishment in- 
flicted upon Adam and Eve, in driving them from the 
garden of Eden, they were no doubt most powerfully 
impressed with the idea that God was ready and able 
to vindicate his character for truth and sovereignty. 
Nor is there a more touching incident in history than 
that of the departure of our first parents from the 
garden of paradise; and perhaps no moral subject 
ever afforded a larger field for the efforts of poet or 
painter in portraying their disappointment and an- 
guish as they obeyed the voice of their Creator; Eve 
thus lamenting, in the language of the poet,— 

1 



146 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

"Must I leave tliee, Paradise? thus leave 
Thee, native soil ? these happy walks and shades, 
Fit haunt of gods, where I had hoped to spend 
Quiet, though sad, the respite of that day 
That must be mortal to us "both/' 

But with the sentence of death came also the prom- 
ise of life, yet with less clearness we apprehend than 
as understood in our times ; for it was couched in 
general terms, and simply declared that, " in their 
seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." 
Before the promise no ray of hope could have emerged 
from the cloud of vengeance ; environed by all the 
terrors the human mind could bear, they could have 
had no persuasion of any intended act of divine good- 
ness. And when it came, they could not have so much 
questioned the ability of God to perforin what had 
been declared as the manner of so doing. As yet no 
children were born unto them, and how could they 
see the extent of their line of descendants reaching 
out into time, and less the period when this wonderful 
deliverer should come. Still less could they conceive 
of the exact nature and mode of the assistance to be 
rendered. 

To enable us to discern more clearly the situation 
of our progenitors, as well as all their descendants, 
respecting their view of the promise, we will glance 
at the most conspicuous of the predictions relating to 
it, and appropriate each to its era: and from this it 
will appear, that as the time drew nearer and nearer 
for the accomplishment of them, circumstances were 
more and more developed by the various prophets 
who were used as instruments in the hands of God to 
reveal the manner of fulfilment. And, 1. The period 
included between the fall and the flood ; 2. From 



ANCIENT AND MODERN FAITH COMPARED. 147 

the flood to the death of Terah, 425 years; 3. From 
Abram's entrance into Canaan till the departure out 
of Egypt, 430 years ; 4. Thence till the temple was 
founded, 480 years ; 5. Thence to the captivity, 425 
years; and 6. From thence down to the advent, 560 
years. 

1. Now the first period of 1656 years was marked by 
but one allusion to the coming of the Son of Man, 
and that was in the following vague and general 
terms, found recorded in the third chapter of Gene- 
sis : — " It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise 
his heal" It was, therefore, reserved for much later 
times to give circumstantially the assurance that 
" as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made 
alive." Yet, though Adam and his immediate de- 
scendants failed to perceive the exact results to the 
world of the promise, they nevertheless appear to have 
had the knowledge of good and evil, and preserved so 
much of the fear of God that we soon see Cain and 
Abel, taught no doubt by their recreant parents, 
erecting- their altars and offering sacrifices; and that 
so strong was the faith of the early inhabitants, the 
rarest specimens of piety are to be found. 

2. Nor was there a repetition of the promise during 
this age, unless something appears in the covenant 
specified as an everlasting covenant made with Noah 
and his descendants upon their going out of the ark. 
Bat this merely stated that a bow should be placed in 
the clouds, upon which God would look, and upon 
which the generations to come might look, while both 
would be reminded that henceforth the earth should 
not be destroyed by water. If there was such allu- 
sion in this incident, Noah was doubtless in a condi- 



148 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

tion to perceive it, just having ended the sacrifice of 
burnt-offerings, which were so piously disposed that 
the incense went up as a " sweet-smelling savour to God," 

3. Herein traces of the original promise appear, 
and with the history of Abraham open some of the 
richest scenes connected with the Bible. This period 
appears as a luminous star in the darkness of past 
ages, and has served as a beacon ever since to guide 
the hopes and faith of the pilgrim. The times of 
Adam, Enoch, and Noah, seem to be forgotten in the 
more glorious days of the " father of the faithful ;" 
and though one was honoured in being the first of the 
human race, another translated, and the last called 
the " preacher of righteousness," yet none appear to 
occupy that near position to the throne of God which 
Abraham is said to do. 

The first declarations made to Abram are found in 
the beginning of the twelfth chapter of Genesis, as- 
serting " that in him should all the families of the 
earth be blessed." Again, in the next chapter, it is 
said, that " his name should no more be called Abram, 
but Abraham, for a father of many nations have I 
made thee ;" and that he would make nations of him, 
and kings should come out of him. Also in the fol- 
lowing chapter it is recorded, that he was surely to 
become a great nation, and all the nations of the 
earth were to be blessed in him. Also at the time of 
testing the patriarch's faith in sacrificing his son, God 
declared that " he had sworn that in blessing he would 
bless him, and in multiplying he would multiply his 
seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand upon the 
sea-shore, and in his seed should all the nations of 
the earth be blessed." 



ANCIENT AND MODERN FAITH COMPARED. 149 

But in still more direct and positive terms does 
Jacob, upon the solemn and imposing occasion of call- 
ing his sons around his dying bed, prophesy as to the 
coming of the Messiah, when he says, " The sceptre 
shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from 
between his feet, until Shiloh come." The Jews con- 
sidered this prophecy as relating to the Messiah; and 
that when the sceptre should depart from Judah, that 
is, when her political existence should cease, and 
she become mingled with other tribes, then should 
Shiloh, or the Messiah, come. Such communications 
mark this age, as being superior to those preceding in 
the light afforded. 

4. But let us turn to other ages, and glean their 
tokens of the promise ; and beginning with the won- 
derful escape of the Israelites from Pharaoh, and their 
entrance into the wilderness, there appear to be ex- 
press intimations of the advent. For when the chil- 
dren of Israel were plagued with fiery serpents, 
whereof many died, upon their repentance God com- 
manded that a brazen serpent be made, and lifted up 
upon a pole, that as many as should look on it might 
live. Though not understanding this type as fully 
as we do, yet they perhaps had a conception of its 
meaning. To us, with the Saviour's reference to it, 
as seen in the third chapter of John, there appears 
great beauty and simplicity in such a figure ; for he 
says, " that as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wil- 
derness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 
that whosoever belie veth in him should not perish, 
but have eternal life." 

And about a year later, Moses, in recounting before 
the Israelites the various events connected with their 



150 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

history, and calling to remembrance the awful yet gra- 
cious dealings of their Maker towards them in all the 
way in which they had been brought, uses (Deut. xviii, 
18,) these words, with the spirit of prophecy: " I [the 
Lord] will raise them up a Prophet from among their 
brethren like unto thee, [Moses,] and will put my words 
in his mouth ; and he shall speak unto them all that I 
shall command him." Again, about the same period 
Balaam said, in the spirit of prophecy, " I shall see 
him, but not now ; I shall behold him, but not nigh ; 
there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre 
shall arise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners 
of Moab, and destroy the children of Sheth." 

There was also the voice of one speaking out from 
the mercy-seat, between the cherubim, indicating per- 
haps that God was willing to show mercy to all, and 
that no place was fitter from which words of peace 
should proceed than the holy place, the inner part 
of the sanctuary, the place where his glorious presence 
delighted to dwell. Coming from that sacred and 
solemn place, and being not the voice of thunderings 
as heard from the mount at the delivery of the law, 
but a sweet and gentle voice, falling softly and kindly 
on the ear of Moses as he went into the inner court, 
it might well betoken the disposition of the offended 
sovereign of all the earth to be pitying and kind to 
his erring creatures. 

David, however, peculiarly honours this age with 
his numerous allusions to the coming of a Saviour. 
In his pious ascriptions of praise and thanksgiving, 
of which he was usually so full, there are many 
thoughts indicating a spirit of prophecy and a vivid- 
ness of perception not suggested to any before him. 



ANCIENT AND MODERN FAITH COMPARED. 151 

Hear him venting his feelings after the following 
manner in the sixteenth Psalm: " For thou wilt not 
leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thy 
Holy One to see corruption." " Thou wait show me 
the path of life : in thy presence is fulness of joj, and 
at thy right hand there are pleasures forever more." 
And in the sixty-eighth Psalm he says, " Thou hast 
ascended on high ; thou hast led captivity captive ; 
thou hast received gifts for men ; yea, for the rebel- 
lious also, that the Lord God might dwell among 
them." Again, in another place, " The Lord hath 
sworn, and will not repent. Thou art a priest for- 
ever, after the order of Melchizedek." So his divin- 
ity was likewise foretold in these words, or such as 
are equivalent : — He was to be worshipped by the w T ise 
men : he should preach the w r ord of the Lord : cast 
the buyers and sellers out of the temple : he should 
be a priest, and offer sacrifice ; be crucified ; be offered 
wormwood and gall to drink : they should part his 
garments, and for his vesture cast lots : he should 
be mocked by his enemies: his handstand his feet 
should be pierced: he should pray for his enemies: 
not a bone of him should be broken : he should be cut 
off in the midst of his days : ascend into heaven, and 
sit on the right hand of God : — all of which point 
with considerable perspicuity to the triumphs of the 
cross, and the achievement of a most glorious victory 
over the enemies of righteousness. 

5. Numerous predictions marked this age. Like 
rays of light, prophecy after prophecy directs the eye 
towards the one great event ; and so constant is the 
vision that several of the prophets are constrained to 
send forth their predictions at the same time, filling 



152 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

up, as rapidly as was necessary, the chasms in the 
preceding disclosures. The first after David who 
communicated anything respecting the Saviour was 
Micah, who prophesied about three hundred years later, 
and adds another particular in the history of the Mes- 
siah, viz., the place of his birth. He says, " But thou, 
Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the 
thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth 
unto me, who is to be ruler in Israel ; whose goings 
forth have been from of old, from everlasting." And 
only a few years after, Isaiah, one of the principal 
prophets, foretells with great fulness as to the fore- 
runner of Christ ; and as to the birth of the Saviour 
says, He should be born of a virgin ; that he was to 
be distinguished by peculiar grace and wisdom, and 
by the descent of the Holy Spirit upon him ; that he 
should work miracles ; that he should not plead upon 
his trial ; be patient under his sufferings ; die with 
malefactors ; be buried with the rich, &c. Whilst, 
about seventy-five years after, Jeremiah discloses the 
fact, that there should be a great massacre at Beth- 
lehem in those days. By Hosea it was shown, that 
he should be carried into Egypt ; by Zechariah, that 
he should ride triumphantly into Jerusalem ; be sold 
for thirty pieces of silver; be forsaken by his disci- 
ples ; have his side pierced ; that an earthquake 
should take place at his death ; and the potters-field 
be bought with the purchase money of his betrayal. 
And by Amos, that there should be a remarkable 
darkness, &c. 

Up to this time so much had been foretold that 
none could hardly fail to apprehend the character of 
the personage who was to come to perform such a 



ANCIENT AND MODERN FAITH COMPARED. 153 

momentous work for mankind as that of saving them 
from their sins. 

6. For the prophets of the sixth period therefore there 
was but little remaining to be foretold. An impor- 
tant circumstance, however, had not been properly 
alluded to by the previous writers, which it became 
necessary to add, and thus close the predictions under 
the old dispensation. Hence Daniel marks the time 
of the Messiah's appearing to make an end of sin — 
make reconciliation for iniquity — and to bring in an 
everlasting righteousness ; the prophets Haggai and 
Malachi merely adding that the Messiah, " the desire 
of all nations, whom they were seeking, should come 
before the destruction of the second temple ; and that 
his presence should fill it with a glory which the first 
temple had not, though it was far richer and more 
magnificent." And Malachi, the last of the prophet- 
ical writers, now exhorts the people constantly to ad- 
here to the law of Moses till Christ the chief prophet 
should appear, whose forerunner, John the Baptist, 
should come in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn 
the hearts of the fathers unto their children, and the 
disobedient to the wisdom of the just. 

So far — that is, to about three hundred and fifty 
years previous to the advent — -the annals of Scripture 
are our evidence and reliance as to the many shif tings 
of prophetic scenery, permitting now and then a view 
of the incidents connected with the appearance of the 
Son of Man on earth, to answer back to that promise 
made in the morning of the creation by a merciful 
and faithful Sovereign. 

II. The results of that faith upon their lives and 
history. As far as relates to the first age, there were 

7* 



154 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

but few specimens of piety, yet the world was honoured 
with a degree of faith in those that compared favour- 
ably with the periods of later date. It is true, so 
great was the wickedness of men, that the Creator de- 
termined to destroy them, and darkness and unbelief 
covered the earth ; but it should not hide from view 
the manifestations of godliness wherever they were to 
be seen. From the teachings of the Spirit, Cain and 
Abel were found at their altars, acknowledging a Su- 
preme Head ; and such was the devotion of the latter 
worshipper, that God was pleased to accept his offerings. 
And so strong was the gaze of Enoch into the regions 
of light, that like a mote in the sunbeam, he was 
drawn upward and upward till lost to the living on 
earth, prefiguring, as it is thought, the ascension 
of purified humanity into the presence of a recon- 
ciled God. 

The second age dawns with more propitious signs, 
and though man forgot not to be wicked, so as to 
cause God to repent of creating him, yet he covenants 
with him that he would no more destroy the earth 
with water ; and, to allay any apprehension he might 
naturally entertain, he wisely and mercifully sets the 
bow in the sky. " For," suggests Dr. Clarke, " that 
phenomenon is perpetuated by the existence of sun- 
light and rain, and that, immutable as are these two 
elements of nature and the laws controlling the phe- 
nomenon of the rainbow, so great should the assurance 
be to mankind of the covenant of God." In the 
planning of the tower of Babel began to appear the 
dismal signs of the times. It was intended that the 
tower " should reach to heaven ;" and so remarkable 
were the industry, energy, and unanimity in this work 



ANCIENT AND MODERN FAITH COMPARED. 155 

of impiety and folly, that what is set forth in the 
history of this event as a purpose of raising the 
mighty pile to heaven, seemed to he founded upon a 
rather plausible basis, and required Divine Wisdom 
to adopt the following language in regard to the 
work : " Behold, the people is one, and they all have 
one language; and this they begin to do: and now 
nothing will be restrained from them, which they have 
imagined to do." Hence, to prevent the continuance 
of this labour, the confusion of language took place, 
and being unable to co-operate in their work, they 
were dispersed abroad and soon covered much of the 
whole earth. What traces of piety went with them 
is not known, little being found recorded concerning 
the nations composed of these scattered offenders, it 
being merely stated that Mizraim, the grandson of 
Ham, led colonies into Egypt, and laid the foundation 
of a kingdom which lasted over sixteen hundred years ; 
and that Nimrod laid the foundation of the monarchy 
of the Babylonian or Assyrian empire. 

The third age bears traces of the purest faith. 
Beginning with the call of Abraham from Ur, of the 
Chaldees, to Haran, of Mesopotamia, and then from 
Haran into the land of Canaan ; his departure into 
Egypt and his early return ; we find him bearing in 
his heart the warmest devotion to his Maker, and 
openly avowing his zeal for the cause of the living 
God. He is first seen in the plains of Moreh, rearing 
his altar with his own hand, although " the Canaanite 
was in the land." Again, upon his removal thence 
into a mountain on the east of Bethel, he builds an- 
other and there calls upon the name of the Lord. 
Coming up out of the land of Egypt, where he had 



156 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

sojourned a few years on account of the famine in his 
own land, he directs his steps towards Bethel, " even 
Bethel," as Moses records it, to the place of the altar 
which he had made there at first, and, with emotions 
of a soft and delicate kind, no doubt there again wor- 
ships his God. In Egypt he had been among stran- 
gers, had suffered much in mind from the circumstance 
of his wife being taken from him for a season, and 
must have longed to depart to the place of his former 
journeyings; so when this yearning had brought him 
back along the very way by which he went, every 
landmark awakening his memory, it must have been 
with no ordinary zest he beheld again the sacred spot 
where he had before called on the name of the Lord. 
Nor was this worship and faith without its fruits in 
his character, for immediately after returning to Ca- 
naan in company with Lot, a strife ensued between 
their herdsmen, and the patriarch, imbued with the 
true spirit of Christianity, gave Lot the choice of all 
the country before them, urging him to choose, that 
there might be no more disturbance among their ser- 
vants. And peace was restored. Whilst God, as if 
pleased with this noble conduct of his servant, Abram, 
tells him to behold the land lying before him, from 
the place in Canaan where he then stood eastward 
and westward, northward and southward ; it should 
all be given him and his seed after him forever ; and 
to arise and go through the land in any direction he 
chose, for it was all his. So he removed his tent to 
Hebron, in the plains of Mamre, and by no means 
forgetting God, though his possessions were increased, 
he erects another altar. But the same spirit of piety 
appears not to have existed among the people around 



ANCIENT AND MODERN FAITH COMPARED. 157 

him; for we at the same time read of strife and in- 
surrection — the whole country being alive with dis- 
order and rebellion — nine kings at one time engaging 
in terrible conflict in the valley of Siddim. 

So often had Abram had the promises of God veri- 
fied that his faith began to be unbounded; and when 
he is next seen it was a few years after, w T hen he had 
been complaining because of his having no heir nor 
prospect of any. Whereupon the Lord brought him 
out, and directing him to look up at the heavens, told 
him to number the stars there visible, and if he could, 
then could he enumerate the seed that should be given 
him. And so intense w^as his faith in this truth that 
he expressed not the slightest doubt ; nor was it till 
afterwards that he appeared to question the veracity 
of God by asking how he should be assured of the 
gift of the land of Canaan to him and his seed. It 
is difficult to explain this decline in his faith, since he 
had just evinced no hesitation in believing the more 
startling promise of his progeny being numberless, 
and moreover when this promise concerning the land 
of Canaan was made about five years before, as pre- 
viously recited, he showed no signs of unbelief. 

" His faith was counted to him for righteousness" 
at the second, not the first time the promise was ut- 
tered, and by referring the seeming doubt to the man- 
ner of his being possessed of the land and the time of 
possessing it, this difficulty, if it really be such, may 
be easily explained. However, he never after ex- 
pressed any doubt of the extent of his posterity or 
possessions ; and when the Lord appeared to him at 
other times relative to the same subject, he did not 
disbelieve, but merely on one occasion seemed sur- 



158 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

prised that Sarah's heir should be the one with whom 
the covenant was to be associated, since Ishmael was 
already born, and Sarah and himself were now old 
and well stricken in years. His words are, " Shall a 
child be born to me that am a hundred years old, 
and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?" 
Even at that most trying moment when he was com- 
manded to offer his only son as a sacrifice he mur- 
mured not, but was about slaying him when prevented 
by an angel. Though told that in Isaac w r as the 
covenant of promise to begin, that Ishmael must be 
superseded, though rapidly decaying himself, and 
Sarah no less so, without any avenue of hope but in 
the wisdom and power of God to raise up seed from 
them alone ; he obeyed, and that last act, the crown- 
ing one, we may suppose, of the patriarch's life, evinced 
so much of trust and obedience, his faith appearing to 
increase with each successive emergency, that the an- 
gel of the Lord declared in the most emphatic man- 
ner, that because he had done this thing, and had not 
withheld his son, his only son, the blessings hitherto 
promised should most assuredly be made sure. 

The personal history of Isaac bears a resemblance 
to that of his father, particularly respecting his fears 
lest his wife might be taken by the men of Gerar; 
in the results of the strife between his and the Phil- 
istines' herdmen about certain wells of w T ater ; in the 
rearing an altar at Beersheba, and the appearing of 
the Lord assuring him of his merciful disposition to- 
wards him. 

In Jacob the same spirit of obedience and faith 
manifested itself. For among the first acts of his life 
is recounted that interesting circumstance of his lying 



ANCIENT AND MODERN FAITH COMPARED. 159 

down at nightfall to rest on the way between Beer- 
sheba and Haran, with a stone for his pillow and the 
greensward for his bed, and dreaming he saw a ladder 
set up from earth to heaven, with angels ascending 
and descending upon it, the Lord being above it, say- 
ing to him that the land w T hereon he lay should be 
given to him ; and rising up early in the morning, he 
took the stone and setting it up for a pillar, and pour- 
ing oil thereon, makes his vow. Twenty years after 
he wrestles with an Angel all night, awaiting a bless- 
ing from him and prevailed, so as to have his name 
changed from Jacob to Israel, that is, a prince of God, 
and the further blessing of assurance that it was God 
he was in communion with. And a few years later 
he erected his altar at Bethel unto "God, who ap- 
peared to him at PenieV' where he wrestled. Then 
follows the most touching of all narratives, the his- 
tory of Joseph, which has no equal in any age; con- 
necting itself with the declining years of the old 
patriarch and ending with the long and mournful 
procession that followed his remains from Egypt up 
into the land of Canaan ; resting awhile at the thresh- 
ing-floor of Atad, beyond Jordan, and there venting 
their grief with so much bitterness that the inhabit- 
ants of the land, hearing the mournful wail, pro- 
nounced it a " very grievous mourning ;" and the de- 
positing his remains in the burying-ground at Mach- 
pelah, where reposed the ashes of Abraham and 
Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, and Leah. 

It therefore appears in all these recitals that there 
w r as a pure, living, and practical faith in the earth, 
and, in casting the eye back along the line of Abra- 
ham's family, a shining track is apparent, revealing 



160 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

glimpses, or rather a continuous flow of sacred light, 
leaving surrounding nations in the midst of gloom. 
Their difficulties and trials, the obscurity resting upon 
the revelations from heaven, the immense population 
surrounding them ignorant of God, all conspire to 
astonish us at the vigour of their faith, the joy of 
their hearts, the prudence of their lives, and the 
glorious nature of their death. 

In the fourth age, likewise, is the pathway of faith 
clearly discernible, for it embraces the times of Moses 
and Aaron, Balaam and David. In fact with the 
ministry of Moses begins a new era in the history of 
men — the shadows hanging around the more ancient 
prophecies now gradually departing at the promulga- 
tion of the law and the establishment of a bloody 
ritual, pointing the great prophet with the mass of 
his followers intelligibly, at least, to the coming of 
Christ. The eyes of many, if not all, were turned 
forward in hope ; and while day by day the incense, 
w T ith the smoke of rams and the blood of bulls, rose 
upward to the heavens, some no doubt thought on the 
sufficiency and yet insufficiency of these things ; and 
that whilst every circumstance of punishment for diso- 
bedience and the requirement of the purest lives, showed 
the purity and holiness of God, it must have remained 
a mystery to a few how such sacrifices could please 
the Divine Mind, seeing that God is a Spirit, and these 
were but the offerings of creatures formed by his own 
hands ! These ceremonials we now know spoke only 
of " better things," and although when conducted in 
faith with repentance, served to appease their Sove- 
reign, inasmuch as he was satisfied there was a De- 
liverer to come, who would most surely appear in due 



ANCIENT AND MODERN FAITH COMPARED. 161 

course of time, and as for priest so for people, make a 
final end of all such types and shadows, concentrating 
the faith of the world henceforth in Him directly and 
alone, as able to save the people from their sins. 

The evidences of religion, as witnessed in these 
daily services of that period, were perhaps of more 
benefit to the people than any ritual of merely mental 
worship. The continual presence of the priests ; the 
almost hourly attendance upon some pious duty ; the 
festivals and songs of joy and triumph so frequently 
heard in their camp, and the rehearsal of their law 
again and again, alone could have kept the fear of 
God in their minds, and caused them to continue a 
il peculiar people." With the service of modern times 
there would, in all probability, have been no life of 
devotion among them, and they would have rebelled 
more than they did. 

But the reign of King David brought on a still 
better period of the same age. To his continued de- 
votion to the cause of religion was owing the great 
kindness of the Lord to him, being pronounced a man 
after his own heart. Under the favour of Heaven he 
passed into a state of deep piety, and, though some- 
times moved from his steadfastness, was always quick 
to repent and seek again the friendship of God. His 
trials were great, his faith great. To him the hope 
in the Messiah was a reality, and he was assured that 
his flesh should not remain in the dust, but arise ; 
and, as God would not suffer his Holy One to see cor- 
ruption, so also he would raise him up with all who 
died in the triumphs of faith. His communings with 
God, as shown in his Psalms, testify to his devotion 
and fear, trust and humility. His influence has been 



162 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

felt through all the ages posterior to his own, and his 
own thoughts and aspirations have become a part of 
household devotion in every land ; his grief and 
mourning becoming as useful a form to the repenting 
soul, as his joy and triumph to the glad in heart. 

The fifth age ushered in other predictions concern- 
ing the Messiah, whilst the prophets showed them- 
selves to be patterns of faith. It was thus with Eli- 
jah, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and others, whilst many of the 
kings of Israel and Judah were living and dying in 
the exercise of pure religion. None of the eras of the 
old dispensation are fuller of the results of faith, by 
both prophet and people, than this. 

The residue of the history, including the time from 
this period until the advent, was connected with the 
life of Daniel, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, John 
the Baptist, and other prophets, with all of whom 
the fear of God and faith in Christ was a controlling 
principle, and from whose inspired lips proceeded such 
torrents of eloquent prediction that the nations began 
to exhibit signs of animation and expectancy, of hope 
and fear, at the coming of the great personage who 
was to be born king in Sion. And this, notwith- 
standing the temporal bondage under which the Jews 
laboured for so long a period, even after the death of 
Malachi, the threatened annihilation of their religion 
by the edicts of Gentile kings, and their unmerciful 
abuse of their political freedom. In the midst of all 
this servitude, many a Jew was secretly conning over 
the ancient writings of the prophets concerning Christ, 
through the long line of forty-and-two generations 
back to Abraham, and doubtless fixing attention 
especially upon the period named by Daniel for the 



ANCIENT AND MODERN FAITH COMPARED. 163 

advent, and that passage in the book of Micah which 
pointed out the place to be so wonderfully honoured 
by a Saviour's birth. 

Summing up, therefore, what has been said relative 
to the evidence and influence of the promise made at 
the commencement of the world upon the life and 
history of the ancients, it may be observed, 1. That 
Adam and Eve understood the promise, as may be 
inferred in part from the exclamation of the latter at 
the birth of Cain : " I have gotten a man from the 
Lord." That the incest of Lot's daughters was caused 
by a desire to be honoured with the Saviour's birth. 
Also, Sarah's impatience at barrenness ; and Jacob's 
polygamy. 2. That types of Christ were seen in 
Aaron, the paschal lamb, the manna, the rock in 
Horeb, the mercy-seat, and the brazen serpent. 
3. That shadows of " good things to come " (Hebrews 
x, 7) were seen in the Levitical laws, sacrifices, and 
ordinances under Aaron and his sons, and were par- 
ticularly spiritualized by the Israelites. 4. That the 
prophetical writings were necessary in the early ages 
for the preservation of the knowledge of God ; that 
they preserved the true faith themselves, and were 
the means of instructing others therein, and besides 
serving by their writings to complete the long chain 
of predictions necessary to opening a new page in the 
world's history, they became admonitors of us " upon 
whom the ends of the world are come ;" and besides 
being safe guides to the faithful in older times, when 
merely the star of hope was set up in the sky, may 
teach to some extent, now that the "Sun of righteous- 
ness hath arisen with healing in his wings." 

III. The evidence possessed by moderns. When 



164 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

the time foretold by Daniel had nearly arrived, and 
the course of events seemed to harbinger some impor- 
tant epoch, behold ! the angel of the Lord appeared 
to a man named Joseph in a dream, saying, " Thou 
son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy 
wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy 
Ghost And she shall bring forth a son, and thou 
shalt call his name Jesus : for he shall save his people 
from their sins." Christ was therefore born in Beth- 
lehem of Judea. " Tn those days also came John the 
Baptist, preaching in the wilderness, saying, Eepent 
ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this 
is he that was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah," 
Afterwards, at the baptism of Jesus, was a voice heard 
from heaven pronouncing him to be the beloved Son 
of God, in whom he was well pleased. Upon another 
occasion the Saviour remarked to the multitudes who 
were attentively hearing him, " Think not I am come 
to destroy the law, or the prophets ; I am not come to 
destroy, but to fulfil." At a marriage in Cana of 
Galilee, Christ turned water into wine, as the begin- 
ning of his miracles, followed by a long list of others 
of every description, among which above five thousand 
were fed at one time upon five barley loaves and two 
little fishes ; Lazarus was raised from the dead ; Bar- 
timeus was restored to sight ; a fig-tree was cursed 
and withered. Soon after, he is betrayed, condemned 
by Pilate, and crucified ; the sun is darkened, and the 
veil of the temple is rent in twain. He is buried in 
the tomb of a rich man of Arimathea ; he riseth from 
the dead ; angels declare to certain women he had 
risen ; he appeareth to several persons ; he ascends 
into heaven from Mount Olivet in view of many dis- 



ANCIENT AND MODERN FAITH COMPARED. 165 

ciples, while angels warn them to set their minds on 
his second coming in the clouds of glory. As prom- 
ised, the Holy Ghost is sent down on the apostles; the 
disciples confer the Holy Ghost on believers ; repent- 
ance unto life is granted unto Gentiles as well 
as Jews ; according to Christ's prophecy Jerusalem 
is besieged, taken, sacked, and burned by Titus; 
St. John is banished to the isle of Patmos, and writes 
his Eevelation. 

Such events, in proof of the validity of the new 
covenant, accomplished in the person of Jesus Christ, 
unnumbered circumstances, connected with his mira- 
cles and with those of his disciples, extending clown to 
present times, in the character of all true believers in 
him, testify to Jew and Gentile that " old things are 
done away, and all things are become new:" that 
no more sacrifice for sin is to smoke upon Jewish 
altars ; no more is the audible voice to proceed from 
the mercy-seat within the veil ; departed and gone is 
the light that fell on the breastplate of the priest ; 
that dreams, visions, inspirations, and conversation with 
God — the four modes of communication — ceased under 
the second temple, and are no more needed under 
the dispensation of grace. At the announcement of 
the Messiah on Calvary that it was fi?iis7ied, the 
clouds hitherto resting on the future rolled away 
towards the past, dimming the ages of patriarchs 
and prophets, and hushing into the silence of the 
grave the thousand voices coming up from that land 
of night. 

IV. Its effects. With this new era of Christianity, 
some things were revealed w T hich were unknown before. 
Among these revelations was the important one of 



166 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

disowning the old law of " injury for injury," and en- 
forcing in its stead the " law of love." Before, it was 
" an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth ;" now, if 
one " shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him 
the other also." The law of love, therefore, took the 
place of the law of hatred, or vengeance. At the 
same time the law requiring love to God was recog- 
nised by Christ as still existing, and the general dec- 
laration made that he had come " not to destroy the 
law, but to fulfil it." The additional fact w r as also 
disclosed that Christ had power on earth to forgive 
sins; and all were urged, as they had faith in God so 
to have it in him, with the promise that when he 
should ascend into heaven he would send the Holy 
Ghost from the Father. From all this it was evi- 
dent a new period had dawned, and it was expected 
that men should see and feel the effects of such a min- 
istry. Hence they gathered in multitudes to hear his 
w T ords of kindness and wisdom ; hence the whole coun- 
try was alive with his praises ; and while John was 
in the mountains of Judea, beseeching the people to 
believe on Jesus and repent, the highways around 
Capernaum and the Sea of Galilee were ringing with 
the acclamations of the subjects who had been healed 
by our blessed Lord. In the language of another, 
" all men came unto him," such was the interest 
manifested. Nor did these new doctrines, as the 
Pharisees called them, fall to the ground without 
effect — for while we see pious Stephen stoned to death 
by his enemies, he kneels down at the moment of 
his departure and exclaims, " Lay not this sin to their 
charge !" And all who suffered martyrdom in the 
cause of Christ showed the greatest patience and 



ANCIENT AND MODERN FAITH COMPARED. 167 

courage in their trial, exemplifying in their life and 
death the spirit of Christianity. 

Faith should increase with the evidence supporting 
it. Hence, although Adam, Moses, and the prophets 
talked with God, yet as we have the full history of 
past events to guide us, with the illustration in the 
person of Christ of numerous hidden designs of the 
Creator, our confidence in divine truths ought to be 
proportionate, and accordingly but few now disbelieve 
the great record of these events, the Bible; and, what 
is more important, multitudes are attracted by the 
power of truth, and exercise the beautiful and saving 
principles of religion. It was indeed a wonderful ex- 
hibition of faith in the patriarchs when they believed 
God, in his marvellous disclosures concerning human 
destiny extending to eternity ; but that faith was the 
property of only a few, immortalizing those who pos- 
sessed it, it is true, still being not much more than 
handed down from father to son in one line of descent, 
and for the most part controlling merely the simpler 
emotions. With the era of Christianity, there is a 
running to and fro in the earth under its incitements, 
whilst whole families, kindred, people, and tongues, 
are living and dying in the use of faith in the Be- 
deemer. The veil was upon the minds of our fore- 
fathers, and through the weakness of their faith they 
had laws of public and private conduct which they 
were able to obey — excluding the law of charity as 
too high for their attainment. Not by any means 
excusing the guilty, so far as a violation of the pre- 
scribed law went, but only requiring an obedience 
commensurate with their capacity to yield it. But in 
the exercise of their faith there was sufficient limit for 



168 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

the exhibition of peculiar devotion. Though their 
circle of knowledge and experience was small, yet 
between the centre and circumference there was room 
for brilliant efforts of faith and obedience ; and whilst 
so few attained the high marks of virtue, there was 
nothing to prevent all from becoming examples of 
righteousness. Thus Abraham is represented as be- 
ing the " father of the faithful," extending his em- 
pire of belief far among the regions of doubt and fear, 
and erecting his altars of the true faith upon the out- 
skirts of human wisdom. 

And yet John the Baptist, merely the forerunner 
of Christ, a harbinger of our dispensation, saw further 
into spiritual things than Abraham. How much more 
than those who have since lived ! Though the com- 
munion of Abraham with God and angels, of Jacob 
with the Lord at Peniel, the flight of Elijah to heaven 
in a chariot of fire, are great events, yet the baptism 
of Christ by John, with the evidences indicating the 
immediate presence of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, 
the ascension, the revelations to John the divine in 
the isle of Patmos, all testify to the superior glory of 
modern faith. 

But as the results of this more perfect faith are 
seen in private and personal history, so are they in 
connexion with society at large. Yea, it is shown 
with even more clearness and satisfaction in the an- 
nals of general experience. For many live and die 
in the daily use of faith and obedience without a 
record of their virtues, while the seed sown by them 
finally waves in rich harvests in the view of all. As 
by looking out upon the sea we can often discover 
energies at work at the bottom without exactly per- 



ANCIENT AND MODERN FAITH COMPARED. 169 

ceiving their nature or origin, so by observing the 
tone of society we see, upon an enlarged scale, the 
secret and minute operations of faith, attesting no 
less the private results of its exercise than the open 
and more comprehensive display of its use by the 
masses. 

From the smallest beginnings, to all human appre- 
hension, the kingdom of God set up in the world at 
the commencement of the Messiah's reign has grown 
so as to cover much of the whole earth. With the 
terrible enmity of men and devils burning against it; 
with the concentrated powers of thrones and dynasties 
at war therewith ; with Jew and Gentile, both friend 
and foe, arrayed for its destruction, — that little king- 
dom, like a " grain of mustard-seed " cast into the 
earth by the hand of God, has sprung up to a great 
tree, extending its branches over the dominions of 
man. Whilst principalities and powers, thrones, king- 
doms and realms, then begun or in existence, have all 
faded and gone, this almost undiscernible kingdom 
of righteousness and peace, whose foundations were 
laid in obscure Bethlehem, its first friends and sup- 
porters a few poor fishermen of Galilee, hath stretched 
out its lines over land and sea. 

8 



170 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 



CHAPTEE II. 

FAITH OF NATIONS. 

What we have said when speaking of the influence 
of faith over ancient and modern times supersedes the 
necessity of enlarging so fully upon this subject as 
would he otherwise required. There is, however, 
associated with the rise, progress, and decline of gov- 
ernments, so much of the elements of belief or unbe- 
lief in the system of divine truth, that it becomes an 
interesting and important inquiry: " What are the 
peculiar virtues necessary as a basis of social order, 
and the general advancement of the world in happi- 
ness ?" and, on the other hand, the defects in all con- 
stitutions where misrule, violence, corruption, and 
final overthrow are the beginning and end of their 
history. 

We all admit that the piety of the constituent parts 
of a nation, constitutes the piety of the nation itself, 
as many parts are required to make up the whole ; 
and wherever corruption is found among the masses, 
it always manifests itself in some way in the polity 
of the government. Hence, to know the tone of pub- 
lic morals in any nation is to know the general char- 
acter of the individuals composing it ; or the converse 
being alike true, that where the citizenship is pious 
and happy, it is shown in the national career. 

To assist us in setting forth this idea more plainly, 
allow it to be noticed under these divisions, namely : — 

1. That those nations have been most stable, promi- 



FAITH OF NATIONS. 171 

nent, and happy, which "based their government upon 
principles approximating most nearly to divine truth. 

2. The necessity, therefore, of true faith in nations, 
with a view of the mode of its operation. 

3. That all nations evince not the same action, 
though under the influence of the same faith. 

But as it is difficult and unnecessary to collect even 
the outlines of the history of all the different nations, 
and as examples aptly chosen illustrate better than 
entire records, it is proposed to note the operations of 
sound law r s upon the character of "but one ancient na- 
tion with the reverse of the picture, when that nation 
had changed her wise regulations for others entirely 
opposite; the fame acquired hy her in the first- in- 
stance equalling her disgrace in the last : afterward 
to advert to the theocratic government of the Jews, 
as exemplifying the truth that their code of laws ap- 
proached more nearly, perhaps, the principles of re- 
ligion and virtue than that of any other people until 
modern times : to observe then the character of our 
own institutions as closely harmonizing with the New 
Testament dispensation, and that the non-observance 
of these principles conflicts with public good and mars 
the designs of the gospel. 

" All agree," observes Eollin, " and it cannot be too 
often inculcated, that the end of all government, and 
the duty of every one in authority, in whatever man- 
ner it be, is to use his utmost endeavours to render 
those under his command happy and just, by obtain- 
ing for them on the one side safety and tranquillity, 
with the advantages and conveniences of life, and on 
the other, all the means and helps that may contribute 
to make them virtuous. ' As the pilot's object/ says 



172 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

Cicero, ' is to steer his vessel safely into port, the 
physician's to preserve or restore health, the general's 
to obtain victory : so a prince and every one who gov- 
erns others ought to make the utility of the governed 
his view and motive, and to remember that the su- 
preme rule of just government is the good of the 
public' " And again, " In the distinctions which have 
been made upon the several forms of government, it 
has been agreed that the most perfect would be that 
which would unite in itself, by a happy mixture of in- 
stitutions, all the advantages, and exclude all the incon- 
veniences of the rest ; and almost all the ancients have 
believed that the Lacedaemonian government came 
nearest to this idea of perfection." 

" Convinced," continues our author, " that the hap- 
piness of a city, like that of a private person, depends 
upon virtue, and upon being well within itself, Lycur- 
gus so regulated Sparta that it might always suffice 
to its own happiness, and act upon principles of wis- 
dom and equity. From thence arose that universal 
esteem of the neighbouring people, and even of stran- 
gers, for the Lacedaemonians, who asked of them nei- 
ther money, ships, nor troops, but only that they would 
lend them a Spartan to command their armies ; and 
i when they had obtained their request, they paid him 
entire obedience, with every kind of honour and re- 
spect. In this manner the Sicilians obeyed Gylippus ; 
the Chalcidians, Brasidas ; and all the Greeks of Asia, 
Lysander, Callicratidas, and Agesilaus ; regarding the 
city of Sparta as a model for all others in the arts of 
living and governing" 

But though the ancients deemed the rise and prog- 
ress of the Spartan government the clearest demon- 



FAITH OF NATIONS. 173 

stration of the success of principles of equity and 
virtue, as applied to the masses, because in that na- 
tion they were more largely developed than in any 
other, yet the Spartan law-giver was indebted for his 
plan to a more ancient kingdom, the fabric of whose 
polity was perhaps still more .remarkably designed 
and successfully established. " For it is well known," 
says Eollin, " that Lycurgus formed the plan of most 
of his laws upon the model of those observed in the 
Island of Crete, where he passed, a considerable time 
for the better study of them. 

" Minos, who is called in fable the son of Jupiter, 
was the author of these laws. He lived about one 
hundred years before the Trojan war. He was a 
powerful, wise, and gentle prince, and still more esti- 
mable for his moral virtues than his military abilities. 
After having conquered the Island of Crete and sev- 
eral others in its neighbourhood, he applied himself 
to strengthen, by wise laws, the new state of which he 
had possessed himself by the force of arms. The end 
he proposed in the establishment of these laws was to 
render his subjects happy by making them virtuous. 
He banished idleness and voluptuousness from his states, 
and with them luxury and vicious pleasures, the fruit- 
ful sources of all vice. Well knowing that liberty was 
justly regarded as the most precious and greatest good, 
and that it cannot subsist without a perfect union of 
the people, he endeavoured to establish a kind of 
equality among them, which is the tie and basis of it, 
and very proper to remove all envy, jealousy, hatred, 
and dissension. He did not undertake to make any 
new divisions of lands, nor to prohibit the use of gold 
and silver. He applied himself to the uniting of his 



174 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

subjects by other ties, which seemed to him neither 
less firm nor less reasonable. 

" He decreed that the children should be all brought 
up and educated together by troops and bands, in order 
that they might learn early the same principles and 
maxims. Their life was hard and sober. They were 
accustomed to be satisfied with little, and to suffer heat 
and cold. Care was taken to give the youth some 
tincture of learning. They (the Cretans) were curi- 
ous in such knowledge as is proper to form the man- 
ners ; and, what is no small praise, they prided them- 
selves upon thinking much and speaking little. High 
respect was inspired in the youth for >the maxims, 
customs, and laws of the state ; and the same attention 
was also paid to the magistrates and aged persons." 

The government was at first monarchical, of which 
Minos has left a perfect model to all ages. Accord- 
ing to him a king has an absolute power to do good, 
but not to do evil ; the law intrusts the people in his 
hands as the most sacred of deposits, upon condition 
that he shall be their common father. The same 
laws require that a single man, by his wisdom and 
moderation, shall constitute the felicity of an infinite 
number of subjects ; and not that the subjects, by 
their misery and abject slavery, shall be substituted 
to gratify the pride and low passions of a single man. 
But the government soon changed into a republican 
form, as the king had intended, and under so wise a 
system changed its aspect entirely, and seemed to have 
become the abode of virtue, probity, and justice. It is 
true, Minos, as well as Lycurgus, is reproached with 
having base designs in his laws — those of conquest : 
but assured as he was that the peace and prosperity 



FAITH OF NATIONS. 175 

of his subjects were alone to be secure under the guard 
of arms and military knowledge, he could but make 
provision for every emergency. But Plato, with others, 
passes the highest encomium on his name, declaring 
him to be one of the prodigies of nature in wisdom 
and virtue, and observes that the " most certain proof 
of that legislator's wisdom is the solid and lasting 
happiness, the imitation of his laws secured to Sparta." 
For nine hundred years the Cretan government 
stood firm on its foundation of wisdom and virtue, 
and was only shaken and destroyed by departures 
from its precepts and principles, and even then was so 
well remembered in its palmiest days as to induce 
Lycurgus to copy from the mutilated records of gran- 
deur, the republic over which he presided, insuring a 
duration to it of six hundred years. But for the de- 
parture by the citizens of Crete from the regimen of 
her king and governor, ages might have continued to 
behold her glory as a living reality, and her system 
have become a model for more modern republics. It 
is said " that the Cretans degenerated very much from 
their ancient reputation, which at length they abso- 
lutely lost by an entire change of their manners, becom- 
ing avaricious and self-interested to such a degree as to 
think that no gain was base, enemies of labour and 
regularity of life, professed liars and knaves ; so that to 
Cretize became a proverb among the Greeks, imply- 
ing to lie and deceive. Everybody knows that St. 
Paul cites against them as truth, the testimony of 
one of their ancient poets, supposed to be Epimenides, 
who paints them in colours much to their dishonour ; 
but this change of manners, in whatever time it 
might happen, does not at all affect the probity of 



176 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

the ancient Cretans, nor the glory of Minos their 
king. 

The Jewish law was from God, and if it is admitted 
that he was perfectly acquainted with the best inter- 
ests of the Jews, it follows that any code, emanating 
from such source, must have answered the wisest pur- 
poses. But without assuming it as true that the code 
delivered to Moses was the most judicious, it will ap- 
pear with clearness from the fact that they were hap- 
pier and wiser than the people of surrounding na- 
tions ; and that nothing could have effected this but 
their system of self-government and attendance upon 
all the ordinances committed to them. Whilst other 
nations with greater advantages were steeped in vice 
and misery, they were in the comparative enjoyment 
of virtue and happiness. And even in the time of 
their servitude in the land of Egypt, though that 
kingdom was celebrated for wealth and power, it en- 
joyed not so much tranquillity as the people thus 
oppressed ; and the overthrow of Pharaoh and his 
hosts in the Eed Sea must have filled them with more 
joy than their task-masters ever knew. On the one 
hand was represented the tyranny of sin and unbe- 
lief, — on the other the power of faith and devotion. 
The tumult of the dying Egyptians sounding out 
from the sea in the darkness of night, was emble- 
matic of the end of sin ; the glad voices reaching out 
from shore to ocean at the dawn of day, told the 
story of victorious truth. 

It is impossible to estimate the influence exerted 
by the Jews upon heathen nations when sojourners 
and wanderers among them, but it is apparent they 
were considered the custodians of divine things ; nor 



FAITH OF NATIONS. 177 

does any doubt exist but that many of the fabulous 
portions of heathen mythology originated in the in- 
fluence of Jewish customs and laws. And though 
however remote from the Israelites, the heathen na- 
tions always preserved some traces of devotion to 
superhuman power, from the law written upon the 
table of their hearts, yet the influence exerted over 
them by means of Jewish teachings usually served 
as a ground- w T ork for their codes of morality, and 
perhaps manifested itself in private conduct to a visi- 
ble extent. 

But however this may be, the Israelites always pre- 
served a sense of right and wrong to which other na- 
tions could not aspire, and specimens of genius and 
piety are to be found among them unequalled by any 
other people. Whilst other nations w r ere rising and 
falling — now attaining splendour and power, then 
losing all and fading away — the Jewish polity stood 
with sure aim at man's advancement, and only ended 
with the fulfilment of their destiny in their disper- 
sion, to return again to their beloved Zion, and sing 
anew their sw r eet songs of triumph. 

2. The necessity, therefore, of true faith in nations, 
with a view of the mode of its operation. If it be 
taken as true that " the nation whose God is the Lord" 
is most happy, it ought to follow that a nation depart- 
ing from a trust in him must suffer proportion ably 
for its folly, and that when it rejects him altogether, 
there can be no hope of solid happiness. Holy writ 
declares such to be the case ; and had we no such in- 
formation, the history of governments sufficiently at- 
tests the truth. Nations, as such, cannot be judged at 
the last day ; their judgment must take in time; and 



178 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

though it be admitted that in meting out mercy or 
judgment to a nation, individual guilt is punished to 
a certain extent, it is also true that the sins of a na- 
tion call down upon it, in a more full and evident 
manner, the chastisement deserved. History proves 
that God will not forever hear the cry of the op- 
pressed without affording relief, nor behold moral 
barrenness in a people without visiting them in anger. 

Nations, being collective bodies of men, are as neces- 
sary in the economy of divine government for the 
manifestation of grace towards mankind as are indi- 
vidual efforts, and non-fulfilment of mission as repre- 
hensible in one case as the other. It therefore be- 
comes important for nations to labour with fear and 
trembling whilst they exist, seeing they endure by the 
appointment of God, who would never allow them to 
organize into governments, unless they were thereby 
either to be recipients of happiness themselves, or to 
become able to confer it on others. Each man's mis- 
sion in life is a great one ; how much more then the 
mission of a kingdom ! As secular schemes for ad- 
vancing the earthly condition of men cannot be suc- 
cessfully conducted without collective aid, so move- 
ments in behalf of moral interests require national 
enterprise and favour. Those nations, therefore, which 
environ themselves with pride and deceit to the ex- 
clusion of divine truth, can measure their misfortune 
only by the internal strife they suffer, whilst such as 
follow the dictates of reason and truth receive a rich 
reward. 

True faith in nations is nothing more nor less than 
properly ascertaining, and adopting in practice, such 
belief as consists with the tenor of sacred truth. 



FAITH OF NATIONS. 179 

Man's simple wisdom was never yet sufficient for his 
own individual purposes of happiness ; nor can it be 
possible that nations are to be safely governed by any- 
thing less : the end of all governments being the good 
of the people, and to be attained only at the moment 
when each individual receives the greatest blessings 
that social habitudes permit. But this is not all. 
With national effort at obedience to the laws of God 
for the government of man in his social intercourse, 
comes more than the grace common to individual faith 
and duty; for as there is a combination of effort na- 
tionally on account of the dignity of the enterprise, 
so must there be a larger supply of wisdom and other 
benign aids than is necessary for the use of individu- 
als merely. And this bountiful supply of assistance 
God never withholds from such nations as endeavour 
to acknowledge and serve him. An individual has 
discharged his obligations when he has put forth all 
possible effort in the work of improving his own moral 
condition and that of others ; and so a nation has 
something yet to do, if she has not exhibited, in ac- 
tion, the concentrated moral influences garnered up 
by her people, and thus incidentally contributed, in 
order that they may be used in more gigantic designs 
for earthly weal. " No man liveth to himself ;" nor 
should a nation live for itself alone. Each is to move 
with impulses according to its strength : nothing less 
can properly ameliorate the condition of the one ; 
nothing less in the other evangelize the world. 

But how does the principle operate that places both 
men and nations in immediate connexion with happi- 
ness ? As men fear God, so nations fear him ; and 
as obey the one, so do the other. The adoption of 



180 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

a system of belief in divine truth, with precise obe- 
dience on the part of the people at large, producing 
toleration and charity, exalts a nation, and causes it 
to receive favour in the estimation of all. For as 
faith operates on the conduct of a single believer, so 
it does in the case of many ; as in many, so in all : 
hence if every one in a nation was a " worker of right- 
eousness," the nation itself would be good; or, if all 
are wicked through unbelief, the nation is bad. All 
nations, at least at this day, take their position within 
the limits of this category ; for none are supposed to 
be wholly good or bad. 

3. All nations evince not the same action, though 
under the influence of the same faith. Individuals, 
believing and obeying the same truth, having differ- 
ent mental and physical constitutions, wdth different 
social positions also, materially differ in conduct. 
Nations, being subject to like diversity of mental and 
social caste, display equal difference in action ; that 
is, as individuals disclose their peculiar outlines of 
organization, so nations composed of subjects differing 
in organization from that of the people of other na- 
tions, evince, in their national capacity, all that differ- 
ence, whatever it may be. Hence, were all the na- 
tions of the earth to adopt the same belief in regard 
to the truth of Christianity, and practise virtue ac- 
cording to its dictates, it would not alter the features 
of society so far as race and climate extend ; but whilst 
naturally and properly softening the dispositions of 
all, and regulating thought and action, yet at the 
same time preserving the relation one to another at 
first existing, with but little if any change. Nations 
of impulsive character continue impulsive ; those of 



FAITH OF NATIONS. 181 

more sober turn do not materially alter. The calm 
and patient habit of more northern latitudes is not 
changed into the excitable temperament of the south, 
but both are preserved as completely as when uninflu- 
enced by religious motive. If there is a difference, it is 
in the change from stern to sterner, and from warmth 
to fervour — the calm and steady Puritan of Plymouth 
Bock becoming still more like the enduring granite, 
breasting the wave of persecution with unyielding 
firmness ; while the lineaments of southern character 
develop themselves in zeal that can scarcely be re- 
strained, and imagination the most brilliant and en- 
trancing. 

Even the Jews failed to exhibit the same conduct 
under the influence of religion as Gentile nations, and 
were they now to be converted and collected into one 
body, they would perhaps present to the view of other 
nations something still of their tenacity of opinion — 
regard for ceremonials — and it is likely establish a 
ritual as much like their present one as Christianity 
would tolerate. Yet this would be proper faith in 
them. 

The unity of faith and practice is in more apparent 
existence in the two nations of England and America 
than elsewhere, though even here, while the latter is 
tolerant and eager for the progress of both civil and 
religious liberty, the former, true to the instincts of 
habit, is content to move more slowly in the work of 
human reform. And should tractable, gay, and er- 
ring France ever come to possess the elements of moral 
power, she would evince a spectacle of native vivacity 
in her conduct still distinguishing her from all other 
nations. The glowing fancy of a Bousseau, Bossuet, 



182 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

Lamartine, and others, would be exhibited wholly on 
the side of religion; whilst the host of her misguided 
writers of fiction, so strangely gifted with genius, 
would leave their mark upon the age. Without dis- 
paragement, we most earnestly hope that a nation so 
wonderfully endowed with mental power and energy 
of purpose might awake to a high destiny in the work 
of religious enterprise ; and whilst preserving her 
national features intact in the great race for moral 
reform, move second to none in the amount of good 
effected. Without the introduction and acceptance of 
the sacred Scriptures this destiny cannot be fulfilled ; 
for in them alone is to be found the secret spring to 
action, moving both man and nations in the cause of 
virtue and happiness. Let nations therefore be care- 
ful to study the Bible, making it " the man of their 
counsel ;" and though we shall not see it destroying 
their aptitude for certain conditions and phases of 
moral and intellectual being, they will nevertheless 
be found better and happier. 



CHAPTEK III. 

CONGREGATIONAL FAITH. 

By acquaintance with the mode of exercising faith in 
the case of individuals, it is easier to determine the 
results of the same faith as exercised by collective 
bodies. If it is true that a person exercising faith 
is successful according to the promise of God, that act 
is as successful as the exercise of any degree of faith 
can make it. It is answered according to the strength 



CONGREGATIONAL FAITH. 183 

of faith. If, therefore, the faith of a single believer 
can accomplish the full purpose of the prayer, the 
prayer of several, in regard to that object, can do 
nothing more. Or if the exercise of faith be merely 
personal in its design — that is, relate to the good only 
of the individual practising it, and it be acceptable — 
the prayers of a multitude can accomplish nothing 
besides. How is it therefore that the belief of a num- 
ber exerts a greater influence than that of a single 
one? 

" Faith is the gift of God:" he who exercises it must 
believe in him ; and that he is a " rewarder of all who 
diligently seek him." We further premise that the 
good of individuals is so blended with that of society 
that it becomes difficult to separate them even in idea ; 
for there can be no personal or private benefit that 
does not, in some degree, enter into the general wel- 
fare ; nor can thero be any common good without the 
participation of individuals. 

The principle upon which the body acts in exhibit- 
ing its strength is to put forth more at one time than 
another, owing to physical health or disease ; and, 
however different the organization of each, multitudes 
of individuals can accomplish more than can be done 
singly. In numbers there is strength, and every one 
realizes this truism. Now the mind is controlled by 
similar laws ; hence in every department of life there 
is a cooperation of individual effort in order to pro- 
duce the greatest possible results. It is but the com- 
mon dictate of reason. Faith is an exercise of the 
mind, and, humanly speaking, dependent upon the 
laws of intellectual organization. Without mind 
there can be no belief — as infants who have sound 



184 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

mental growth without sufficient development to dis- 
cern truth are saved by the mercy of God in Christ. 
Kequiring belief of them would be demanding more 
than they could do, and be the same as excluding them 
from the kingdom of heaven. Hence their salvation 
is not made dependent upon faith, but upon the prin- 
ciples of a wise and economical plan of redemption 
through the atonement. 

But with a mind capable of right exercise there 
may be greater effort under some circumstances than 
others. And furthermore, independent of the casual or 
accidental debility of the mind as retarding effort, there 
is an effect produced from external causes also, and it 
is with these we are more immediately concerned in the 
course of these observations. Outward circumstances 
operating on the mind put it in certain phases, and 
measurably, or so far as they exert influence, control 
action ; that being the most favourable condition for 
its exercise in which it is most free from distracting 
causes. To permit the mind to be free for action it 
must be placed in connexion with its subjects of 
thought by means of the most natural arrangement. 
To this end therefore it may be supposed the Saviour 
saith, "When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and 
when thou hast shut the door, pray to thy Father which 
is in secret ; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall 
reward thee openly." The mind adapting itself to 
circumstances, depressing or elevating itself accord- 
ing to the influences exerted over it, the intercourse 
sought between the suppliant and the Saviour is most 
fully secured in retirement. Affording an example, 
our Saviour was accustomed to retire from the multi- 
tude, in order to commune alone with the Father. 



CONGREGATIONAL FAITH. 185 

The closet Las thus been consecrated to man's pur- 
poses in obtaining audience with Deity. To exercise 
faith most fully the thought must, for the moment, 
be entirely withdrawn from all earthly objects, in 
setting God plainly and lovingly before it. It is true, 
faith becomes habitual, and is often exercised without 
a consciousness of its use ; still, as it is but an exer- 
cise of mind, and all exercises are but units in them- 
selves, have a beginning and end, are actual states 
and conditions of existence, every moment bears its 
distinct account to eternity, testifying " whether we 
be in the faith or no." We at every moment either 
believe or disbelieve whatever truths are set before 
us. It is desirable therefore for all to be so situated 
as to have opportunity for secret communion with God, 
and so have the soul imbued with a sense of divine 
things as to be able, w T hen the occasion of retirement 
is past, to link faith with faith in one unbroken chain, 
until the Father is again sought "in secret." God 
is discerned by faith and not w r ith the natural eye ; 
and if thought is fixed on the objects of sense, some 
might suppose the chain of faith to be broken ; but 
it is quite consistent with reason and experience 
for the thought to be frequently lifted to heaven dur- 
ing the day, while attending to the ordinary concerns 
of life. And thus it must be, to keep pace with the 
temptation to evil thoughts incessantly at work in us. 
We should walk with God by the way, and the sense 
of his presence should become so plain and agreeable 
as to cause the heart to exult at such sweet com- 
panionship ; so that when the voice of God is heard in 
the thunder, or his countenance seen in the lightning 
gilding the cloud, these displays of grandeur may 



186 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

cause the eye to brighten with joy, and our trusting 
spirits to yield yet more fully to his authority. 

From the teaching of Scripture we understand that 
the results of solitary, individual faith are feebler 
than those produced by its exercise by many collec- 
tively. What is, therefore, the philosophy of the 
faith of assemblies ? It must be admitted that the 
faith of each separate member of a congregation, ex- 
ercised in behalf of another, without concern for him- 
self, would not prove effectual. Neither will the faith 
of all, exercised for all, produce the desirable result. 
The mind of the multitude is but the mind of every 
member of it combined, and the conviction of the 
many but that of the few, or rather its constituent 
parts. Hence the faith and desire of the mass for 
any special object is but the belief and hope of every 
one singly. How then can the faith exercised by all 
result differently from its exercise by each at any 
supposed distance from the rest ? If it be the faith 
of each separately, like rays of light converging to 
one focal point, the great Sun of righteousness, the 
object of adoration, sheds his beams upon each heart. 
If every prayer is effectual in its aim, when rightly 
made, the separate and distinct petitions of a nation 
of believers would all be as fully answered as if ren- 
dered jointly and together. 

Still God has enjoined the collective prayer of faith, 
and promised a peculiar blessing in answer to it. 
Should we not, therefore, infer that there is virtue in 
such assemblies, and that the isolated prayer will not 
suffice for every purpose ? We have endeavoured to 
show that the faith of the single believer is effectual 
so far as his necessities extend, but that certain states 



CONGREGATIONAL FAITH. 187 

of being are highly proper, perhaps necessary for its 
full development, and if so, that there are purposes in 
life, as connected with the general welfare, requiring 
stronger faith than a single individual can exercise, 
without contact with others ; and it is only by seeking 
this peculiar phase of mental and moral being to be 
found among brethren, that a sufficient degree of it 
can be attained. For in the services of the Church 
there is a course adopted by the worshippers supposed 
to be most suitable for regulating thought and feel- 
ing, and giving to both the fullest and happiest ex- 
ercise ; and therefore that particular condition of 
the moral feeling superinduced, best calculated to in- 
sure successful communion with God. This intercom- 
munion of worshippers carries with it the idea of 
strength into the solemn service of the sanctuary, and 
may possibly tend to enlarge their desires as well as 
their faith — opening new fields of vision; and being 
assured that the Almighty would not sanction an 
ordinance without attaching some virtue to its use, 
they find faith strengthened from the very persuasion 
of being so closely allied to the promises of God in 
the holy mysteries of his public worship. 

Every one must believe the gospel or be lost, and 
that independently of all others. The sins of each 
lie at his own door, and his own faith must save 
him. And as God has prepared means of salvation, 
and made them dependent on faith, he has conse- 
quently endowed every man with capacity to under- 
stand their use. The faith of each, therefore, is suf- 
ficient for himself, provided he was alone in the world. 
But inhabiting as he does the same earth with myri- 
ads of human souls, and they linked to him by the 



188 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OE FAITH. 

common and indissoluble tie of "brotherhood, is his 
isolated and personal faith sufficient even for himself? 
Can there be any exercise of faith unless it include 
all humanity in its grasp ? All are commanded " to 
love their neighbours as themselves," and hence " pray" 
for them " always." Now faith exercised in behalf 
of others may influence the Spirit of God to operate 
more powerfully in them, in order that they may be- 
lieve, or be rendered beneficiaries in some other way. 
Of course, without the exercise of faith likewise upon 
the part of the individual who thus shares the bless- 
ing of faith's intercession, no lasting good can result ; 
but with his cooperation not only may temporal bene- 
fits ensue, but also spiritual ones. Hence, we fre- 
quently hear of answer to prayer in some manifesta- 
tion of goodness to an individual; and though, as 
before suggested, it must not be inferred that in such 
cases faith performs a miracle in forcing the person 
to believe independently of, or contrary to, the effort 
in his behalf, yet, by the help of the Holy Spirit, such 
encouragement may be given, or opportunities of grace 
permitted, as to lead the subject of sincere prayer to 
receive all desired. Therefore, the faith of individ- 
uals, in answering their own ends, may, at the same 
time, exert a healthful influence over the destiny of 
others. 

But though the faith of numbers includes indi- 
vidual blessings, the principal branch of the subject 
should not be neglected ; that is, that the faith of 
numbers corresponds with numerical good. There is 
a public interest to be guarded and fostered. For the 
purposes of public and private benefit, acting and re- 
acting on each other, civil institutions have been 



CONGREGATIONAL FAITH. 189 

adopted. Without a combination of effort the gen- 
eral interests of mankind would suffer. Hence socie- 
ties, provincial and national organizations, have been 
formed, and all these at times cooperate for the com- 
mon good. If, therefore, man's physical and intel- 
lectual advancement requires such aids, it will appear 
that no less assistance ought to he rendered to the 
moral interest of the human race. To cultivate this 
interest, God has wisely and mercifully established 
institutions of a moral tendency. In ancient times a 
law was given, instructing the masses to congregate 
for religious purposes ; and, in latter days, under the 
Christian dispensation, religious bodies have been or- 
ganized with the same view. And it being the teach- 
ing of wisdom, every age and people have statedly 
assembled for devotional purposes. It is true, that 
independent of man's good, the honour of God should 
be consulted, and the most appropriate ceremony ob- 
served in the worship paid. Without assemblages it 
could not be apparent that homage was rendered ; for 
should all the pious in a nation bow before him in 
secret only, the great body of men would be ignorant 
of it. Socially it could have no influence on them. 
But, by paying homage in the great congregation, 
every one feels its force; and what might prove only 
special and personal, becomes general and for the 
public good. To preserve the remembrance of God, 
therefore, and especially the love and fear of his name, 
there must be times of public worship ; and, to enable 
all to perform a service so peculiarly in honour of him, 
he will give grace and smile complacently on his faith- 
ful people. Where public service is not maintained, 
any community will lose its sense of God's glory and 



190 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

authority, whilst even professors of religion will be 
shorn of much of their spiritual strength. But where 
the services of religion are upheld and the house of 
the Lord made to resound with the glad praises of the 
heart, the sentiment of each is enriched, and the whole 
body is the repository of the fear and honour of God. 
Like the placid lake, which, with its green margin 
of verdure, when fed by the streamlets gushing fresh 
from the neighbouring hills, sends upward its refresh- 
ing vapour to nourish the vegetations on its banks — 
meantime sending out its volume of waters toward 
the sea — so the congregation of the faithful, receiving 
the glad impulses of individual yearning, sheds upon 
its members a measure of its comfort, and bears up 
to God the residue of grateful praise. Hence, David 
" ardently longed to be in the Lord's house amoug 
those who were praising him ;" for there he could hear 
the sweet songs of Zion, and witness the imposing 
ceremonies of the Jewish temple. It was pleasant to 
hear at night the soft anthem whispered, scarcely 
sung, from the house-top of the Israelite by the fam- 
ily choir — for it lifted the thought to heaven — but 
more ravishing to the soul to hear the swelling notes 
of the great congregation, led by the sound of trum- 
pet and cornet, psaltery and harp, in well-timed thanks- 
givings. 

It being granted that the glory of God and the 
good of man are better maintained by public worship, 
a great principle was recognised when the assurance 
was given by God that "where two or three meet to- 
gether in my name, there will I be in the midst, and 
that to bless them." It embraces the distinction be- 
tween private and public homage. Already was it true 



CONGEEGATIONAL FAITH. 191 

that the worshipper in secret should receive into his 
"bosom the consolations needed ; but perhaps, lest men 
might " forsake the assembling of themselves to- 
gether," and, by private devotion merely, keep the 
knowledge of their worship from the world, it was de- 
clared to be necessary or important to pay open hom- 
age, which could not be done unless at least two or 
more were assembled. Hence the number was stated 
to establish the principle of public as distinguished 
from private devotion. Now, the soft vespers of the 
solitary devotee, with no auditor but God, are enlarged 
to the loud chorus, of the congregation, and that on 
the holy day rises into the glad and more noble an- 
thems of all the Christian nations, to be finally lost 
at the last day, when the " redeemed of the Lord shall 
come every one into his courts in the mountain of his 
holiness," in the grand and lofty praises of the whole 
angelic host. 

It is important to attend to both modes of worship; 
and if it be done while each brings into the congrega- 
tion from the secret retreat of prayer his fervour there 
matured, to warm and gladden all, he will bear away 
in his soul the increased light and life derived from 
the large and genial flame of general devotion. Hence, 
though the direct result of public worship corresponds 
with the purpose of its institution in maintaining true 
piety, it does not diminish, but, on the contrary, in- 
creases the happiness of each separate believer. And 
not delaying here to notice the immense influence of 
the pulpit on the destiny of millions in moulding, 
directing, and ennobling public sentiment, suffer us to 
say in passing, that to take away this great instrument 
of good would result in an instantaneous, perpetual, 



192 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

and unlimited loss to mankind ; and this notwithstand- 
ing it derives so much support from the secret prayer 
of the Church to sustain the ministry. 

But as example instructs better than precept, let 
us enforce these views by reverting to the scenes rep- 
resented in the Scriptures, where public and private 
devotion proved most effectual, and served for encour- 
agement to us. When Abraham communed with God, 
and was told to count the stars, as furnishing him 
with some idea of his seed — the world was reposing, and 
no eye but that of his divine Master was upon him. 

When Isaac heard the voice of the Lord saying unto 
him, " Fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless 
thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's 
sake " — it was the same night he went up from Ee- 
hoboth to Beersheba, and at the consecrated place 
where his father, a hundred years before, had lifted 
his thoughts to heaven. 

So it was in the night when Jacob had sent his 
family and all that he had over the brook Jabbok, 
and remained with God " alone, as seeing him face to 
face/' that the angel besought him to " let him go," 
for the day was dawning, and the spell of secret devo- 
tion must end. 

Time would fail to tell of Moses in the mount of 
Horeband solitary Nebo; of David, Daniel, and others; 
of our Saviour's communings in the wilderness, and 
among the retreats around Jerusalem ; of Paul, Silas, 
and John the divine. 

At the dedication of Solomon's temple, it was when 
the Levites, who were the singers, Asaph and his band, 
with Heman and Jeduthun, arrayed in white, having 
cymbals, and psalteries, and harps, stood at the altar 



CONGREGATIONAL FAITH. 193 

with the hundred and twenty priests, sounding with 
trumpets, and in full harmony w r ere praising God, 
saying, " For he is good, for his mercy endureth for- 
ever — that the house was filled with a cloud ; that the 
glory of the Lord filled the house of God." So, at 
the time of the descent of the Holy Ghost, the disci- 
ples, with the people, were gathered in unity and con- 
cord at one place. And in all the instances recorded 
we find the worshipper verifying the truth, that where 
" two or three are gathered together in my name, 
there am I, and that to bless them" God would be 
equally present were only one worshipper to lift the 
eye to heaven — all others being ignorant of his com- 
muning; but the duty and propriety of open worship 
also appears to be alluded to in the promise to " bless 
them " engaging in it. We are, therefore, led to con- 
clude there is a blessing provided for such as thus 
worship, which would be withheld without congregat- 
ing in prayer and praise, though this blessing may 
not differ in kind from such as single individuals re- 
ceive. And if so, when thousands of all ages and 
classes, the old and young, in unison of voice and 
spirit, adore, may we not suppose that a merciful 
Euler looks down upon them with peculiar compla- 
cency? And will he not find a w 7 ay in which to bless 
each, all together, in a signal manner? to bless 
each according to his apprehension of divine things — 
all, in proportion to the faith of all — and that not al- 
together because each would be blessed without, but 
that by the general exhibition of faith the fear of 
God is the better maintained ? 

9 



194 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 



CHAPTEE IV. 

FAITH OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 

It is so generally admitted that there exists a living 
Christian ministry, that argument to prove it would 
appear very absurd ; and hence it is proposed to direct 
attention immediately to, 1. The design and scope of 
the ministry. 2. The vocation or calling to the min- 
istry. 3. The faith of the ministry, and also of the 
people necessary to Sustain it. And, 

1. Its scope and design. Before the advent it was 
judged necessary to have types and shadows to pre- 
figure the nature and mission of the Saviour. Long 
was the time to he between the curse and the recla- 
mation ; and the mind, obscured by the fall, was un- 
able to fill up the canvass spread before the vision, 
upon which were only the outlines of the plan of sal- 
vation. Hence types and shadows were used to show 
and explain the purposes of God in fulfilling his 
promise. Thus Moses was a type of Christ's inter- 
cession for sinners ; the brazen serpent a type of the 
crucifixion; the Mosaic institute, a " shadow of good 
things to come ;" the ceremonies connected with the 
tabernacle the prefiguration of spiritual things. These 
types looked toward the future, and when the days of 
fulfilment arrived they were all done away. Now 
the ambassadors chosen by Christ, to go before him 
to preach the gospel, were not types or symbols ; they 
did not prefigure Christ, but only represented him in 
their teachings. There was no need of symbolizing 
now, for Christ himself, with all the " good things " 



FAITH OF THE MINISTRY. 195 

foretold of him, had been seen and known of men. 
So he merely chose men to hold his name up to the 
view of the world — and that not as being; vicegerents, 
but by such gracious doctrines as he had provided 
them in their work. They were commissioned to 
stand up for Christ, but not as Christ, or in the place 
of Christ ; like John the Baptist, in surprising and 
surpassing earnestness to declare themselves unworthy 
to unloose the shoe-latchet of the Son of God. 

As ambassadors, they were to precede Christ ; and, 
when he should be taken from the earth, to continue 
to teach his doctrines and follow his example: that 
he was about to " depart and be w T ith the Father," and 
the kingdom set up must be established : that as 
they had been sent out from him in all directions, so 
should a succession of them go out -from him imbued 
with the same unction of the Holy Spirit. 

Their mission was to teach and govern the Church ; 
that body of true believers which should be the fruits 
of their ministry. To enable them to do this, it was 
necessary to endue them with superior wisdom. If 
unprovided with the gift of tongues, how could they 
teach the great truths appertaining to the salvation 
of the world ? He therefore endued them with abun- 
dant grace. But to gain attention to their doctrines 
it was deemed necessary to have miracles performed ; 
and hence authority to do this was bestowed on all his 
servants : they performed cures, healed the sick, and 
raised the dead, through a mighty power wwking in 
and by them. 

This performance of miracles by the apostles did 
not, it is true, so much exhibit itself instructively as 
for the purpose of showing the pow r er of faith and 



196 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

attesting the character of the grace manifested through 
Christ. It was not so much an argument to prove the 
designs of the gospel in saving the soul as an exhi- 
bition of the grand results of the new system. It * 
was a display of cause and effect at one glance — the 
beginning and end of the beautiful ministration. 
And this was accomplished with such entire satisfac- 
tion to the humble disciples as to constrain them to 
return with great joy to Christ, saying, " The lame 
walk, the blind see, the dead are raised up," through 
faith. It therefore being apparent to all that " mighty 
works showed forth themselves in Christ," there was no 
necessity in after times for giving similar demonstra- 
tions of the divine mission of the apostleship ; but only 
that those who should be chosen as ambassadors or 
teachers should manifest such authority as was com- 
patible with the duty of instructing in the way of 
salvation. 

Or admitting the same necessity to exist now as 
ever for miracles, there does not appear a faith so 
vigorous as to secure the power from on high to work 
them. It required superior faith in the disciples of 
Christ to perform them, for they were reproached on 
one occasion for want, in failing to cast out the spirit 
in the son of the parent who had complained to Christ ; 
and Peter would have continued to walk on the sea 
had not his faith wavered. Miracles are doubtless 
performed now, and will be until the end of time — 
but not such as were known at the commencement of 
the ministry. Faith is the same now as ever, but is 
turned into other channels more consistent with the 
present state and history of the Church. What need 
have we now of such miracles as were performed by 



FAITH OF THE MINISTRY. 197 

Christ or his apostles to recommend the gospel to 
us ? Are not the Scriptures read by all ? Do not all 
see the faithful testimony of the evangelists concern- 
ing what was done at the opening of the ministry? 
Would mere miracles confirm any in their belief, or 
be the means of inducing them to believe ? Surely 
not. Therefore the days of such miracles are indeed 
passed away; but not of all miracles. No voice now 
comes up from a departed Samuel ; nor do ravens feed 
a famishing Elijah ; none are stricken to the earth at 
midday by the exceeding brightness about them, like 
Saul of Tarsus ; no dead are raised up by mere com- 
mand : — yet, through faith in Christ, souls are con- 
verted to God. By faith the mariner, outliving the 
terrible storm far out upon the wave, with glad eye 
again beholds the weathered port ; and by it the poor 
man, lying low on his bed of straw, with the last mor- 
sel gone, with no earthly prospect of help, has his 
cottage enlivened, and his heart gladdened by the 
cheerful faces of the little stranger children sent to 
his door by their kind mother with the present of 
food ; and does he only thank them who have been 
the means of life to him, or does he first turn the eye 
toward the merciful One above, who unexpectedly, 
miraculously, directed their feet along the way to the 
old man's door ? 

To teach all nations and preside over the Church, 
this is the mission of the ministry of our day : not 
to assume to be Christ, or to have his authority ; but 
merely to preach in his name : not to expect miracles 
of ancient times in answer to supplication, but to 
strive for the miracles of these latter days, by fasting 
and prayer, by all manner of obedience, by " faith 



198 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

unfeigned "—looking for daily harvestings from the 
fields ever white for the sickle. The rivers will not 
flow backward towards their fountains ; nor the dry 
rock in the desert give out water; the sun w T ill no 
more stand still in the heavens : but the mighty and 
overwhelming torrent of sin will be rolled backwards ; 
" evil spirits cry out," though unheard by mortal ear; 
and the agonizing heart of the gray-headed sinner, 
when the pit of destruction is opening to receive it, 
will be " snatched as a brand from the burning," and 
sent forth with joy and gladness from impending ruin ! 

To live and die in the ministry is the mission of its 
members. When chosen and accepted by Christ, their 
faith should not fail. Bearing the same impress of 
the divine image as at first received, they should live 
and labour in their glorious field ; never going back, 
never growing weary — knowing that a heavy duty is 
upon them, and a great reward awaiting them in 
heaven. Unencumbered by worldly cares, with ample 
support through the providence of those who receive 
their ministrations, w T ith time for deep meditation and 
prayer, with a readiness to watch over their flocks and 
instruct them, not only in a dying hour, but before 
that hour comes, let them toil on till superannuation 
or death deprives them of the high privilege of 
" preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ." 

2. Vocation or calling. With the disuse of types, 
shadows, and miracles, the ancient mode of selecting 
persons for the priestly office is also abandoned. No 
anointing oil is poured, by the reverend predecessor, 
upon the head of the youthful disciple of the cross. 
No audible voice disturbs the slumbers of the chosen 
herald. No overpowering light from heaven blinds 



FAITH OF THE MINISTRY. 199 

the vision of the zealous advocate of the cause of Christ, 
but now set apart for the proclamation of good tidings 
to the outcasts. These sensible evidences of divine 
choice exist no more. As with the mere believer of 
the gospel, the choice lies before the mind of the 
elected devotee, and as no constraint can ever in any 
case be admitted to be exercised over the will of any 
subject of grace, so no compulsion will ever be resorted 
to, to influence any to enter upon the sacerdotal office. 
It would be a virtual abandonment of the elementary 
principles of mind and spirit to expect it. But though 
it be said to be a matter of choice whether one enter 
upon the ministry or not, yet it must not be under- 
stood to be a choice open to all. What is meant is, 
that he who is elected in the counsels of Heaven to 
occupy such position may himself elect to enter upon 
it or refuse. But should the rejection take place 
knowingly, he would merit the woe pronounced upon 
him. And as further evidence of the freedom of such 
choice, if such was wanting, it may be remarked that 
no " woe " would await disobedience in such cases, if 
there was no ability to refuse. If done through com- 
pulsion, nothing could withstand the impulse used, 
and any provision for neglect would be unnecessary. 
But to understand this branch of the subject more 
clearly, let us direct attention briefly, (1.) To the na- 
ture of this calling ; and, (2.) To the refusal to obey it. 
(1.) The selection by the divine mind of any instru- 
ment for a particular purpose must always be considered 
as the best choice possible to be made under the existing 
circumstances — meaning such circumstances as are de- 
rivable from the previous regular course of nature or 
admitted will of God. A selection at such a time 



200 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

must relate to each and every circumstance or event 
of time, and be such as if those relations were kept 
up by the cooperation of voluntary beings, or other- 
wise would continue to be the most proper and useful 
forever. But the infinite wisdom and power of God 
enabling him to foresee and counteract any influence 
arising out of the most complex relations of existence, 
the voluntary action of the human will, in ap- 
parently deranging any of these relations, does not 
really restrict the foreknowledge of God, or interfere 
with the general, though it may be the particular 
course of Providence. Every event is foreseen, whether 
it take one direction or another — the foresight not 
fixing the event, but rather the event engaging the 
foresight. Hence the foreknowledge and volition of 
God are fully exercised, without the denial of the latter 
to his creature man. Therefore let man do as ho 
may, it is provided for or against by God, and never 
deranges his counsels. x\ccording to mere vulgar ac- 
ceptation, foreknowledge in God implies no will in 
man; that knowing a thing as future is identical with 
ordaining and fixing it But by allowing the mind a 
wider range, and attaching infinite qualities to the 
being of God, one combination of circumstance is as 
present to his view as another, and every possible con- 
tingency already fully known and met. Hence the 
prescience of God no more restrains the volition of 
man than does the volition of man the prescience of 
God. God has infinite power, and is uncontrolled ; 
man, finite power, and in the sphere of it, from his 
very nature tolerated, is also uncontrolled in its use; 
not in its use in strange or unnatural combinations at 
any time, but in its use in natural combinations at all 



FAITH OF THE MINISTRY. 201 

times. Man's will is only finite — free ; God's will 
infinite and free. The smaller being traces his orbit 
as freely as the greater Being moves in his sphere of 
infinite space. 

The call to the adoption as mere disciples or be- 
lievers in Christ, implies a work of grace in the heart 
with suitable impressions on the mind by the Divine 
Spirit always illuminating it, and by special grace 
bestowed in answer to the desire of the soul. With- 
out such impressions and gifts of grace, none can be 
converted; with them, all may be. 

The mental organization of men is as varied as 
their physical structure; the habitudes or instincts 
of their minds assuming always a particular and pe- 
culiar mould. Nature lays this frame-work, and 
though it be built upon, and in some slight respects 
the cast be deranged or perverted, still the outlines 
remain and designate the mind the same as at first 
seen in its mere elementary state. The impress or 
stamp of nature is never entirely effaced. Men call 
this natural talent or genius. Now, as no intelli- 
gence can destroy this cast of nature, so, neither can 
any degree of grace ever destroy it. For grace acts 
in connexion with, and, in some respects, in subordi- 
nation to the mind, and the improvement of the 
former gives more latitude to the latter, while the 
increase of the latter helps the former. They there- 
fore mutually assist, not destroy each other. 

It is certain that all are not called to preach the 
gospel, for then there would be no one to occupy the 
place of hearer of the word. If all are not, then 
some must be. Now God, seeing the work to be done 
in the field of the ministry, knows precisely what work- 

9* 



202 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

men are most needed ; and it is not an unfair con- 
clusion that he elects or selects such characters as are 
most suitable for his purpose. Is it likely, therefore, 
that he will give this additional grace to one whose 
whole mental and moral organization would con- 
stantly counteract and mar it? The genius of one 
man points him unmistakably to one vocation, the 
genius of another sets in a different direction. One 
from his very childhood has his fancy filled with 
bright conceptions of success in the fine arts ; another 
feels inclined towards the art of husbandry. The 
whole circle of the sciences, and the duties of life, in 
other words, are based upon this predisposition. Now 
the w r ork of the ministry being peculiar in itself, re- 
quiring for its better fulfilment certain orders of mind 
or talent, w r ill the election descend upon one who is 
suitable or unsuitable? The answer appears easy to 
every one. But shall a man say that he possesses the 
best ingredients for such calling, and he will there- 
fore venture upon the duties of the office? If he 
has genius for it with the grace, let him proceed ; but 
without the latter let him refrain. Without both 
combined, he would be as a " sounding brass or tink- 
ling cymbal." And now arises the very important 
inquiry which numbers have doubtless never solved to 
their own satisfaction, and, therefore, run before they 
w T ere sent, and others refused to go for want of the 
supposed missal. 

We are inclined to the persuasion that through the 
native instincts of the mind the grace of God acts, 
and that it does not act either adversely to, or with- 
out connexion with, the genius of the agent. That 
the additional grace to prepare for the ministry, (if it 



FAITH OF THE MINISTRY. 203 

be admitted that additional grace is necessary to pre- 
pare the mind and heart of the merely Christian be- 
liever for the ministerial office,) or that bestowal of 
it requisite to lead a sinner to a state of piety, acting 
upon the predisposition of the agent, matures this fa- 
vourable organization into impulsive energy in the 
direction of the characteristic traits of the mind. By 
training, the reverend mind becomes more reverend ; 
by exercise, the taste for moral disquisition becomes 
so determinate that it is impossible to draw off the 
thought from its subject. By the grace of God set- 
ting the whole organization of the mind and spirit 
into motion, it assumes its best shape and condition, 
and the tendencies sustained, not destroyed, by grace, 
show themselves in outward action in the direction of 
the promptings of genius. Following this direction, 
the greatest goodwill be obtained where grace reigns in 
the soul ; or, sin being the prompter, without any grace 
to curb it, the greatest evil is secured. Nor should this 
appear strange, for it is an accredited truth that Satan 
chooses to lead man in the direction of the strongest 
tendencies and aptitudes of his nature, and hence 
leads the little agent of a thievish disposition not 
unfrequently to the pillory ; the hateful and dark- 
minded Cassins to his brutal murder ; the propensi- 
tive to lewdness to suffer in body and soul for their 
sin. God, knowing the indications of the mind, could 
not be supposed to act less wisely in disregarding the 
avenues opened in it through which to lead man into 
his best and most fitting state. 

The question then, we conceive, is reduced to the 
fact of additional grace being necessarily bestowed in 
order to elevate the soul for its high mission ; or will 



204 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

the ordinary supplies of grace in cases of simple piety 
"be sufficient to induce the agent to seek its level of 
duty, when acting upon a mental and moral structure 
adapted to this vocation ? If the admission of the 
first clause of this proposition would lead to the con- 
clusion that where necessary grace is given it renders 
the recipient able, in all cases, at once to be fully as- 
sured and convinced of his mission, then we reserve 
the question. But, if otherwise, — that is, if extraor- 
dinary gifts and graces do not necessarily presuppose 
a certain conviction of this duty, but leave the mind 
often in hesitancy for years, — then the opinion is ex- 
pressed that both gifts and graces extraordinary are 
bestowed upon men in calling and qualifying them 
for the work of the ministry ; thus, raising them by 
a superaddition of power above the rank of ordinary 
believers of the same or similar grade of mind, but 
of different instincts of it. If only ordinary grace 
were given, it w r ould prepare the mind for its minis- 
terial functions in like manner and like degree as 
other minds w T ould be qualified for other employ- 
ments ; and this might be insufficient for the task of 
the apostleship. For though the duties devolving 
upon man in ordinary life are great, yet those falling 
upon the ministry are higher, more dignified, and 
onerous. They stand as sentinels on the watch-towers 
of time, and are to warn man to flee the wrath to 
come. They are guides along the way of life, and 
must point onward in the right direction. They must 
labour for the souls of others to enable them to save 
their own. They stand up before the earth as oracles 
of wisdom and truth, the expounders of the law and 
the prophets, the trumpeters of God's fame and love. 



FAITH OF THE MINISTRY. 205 

And if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, what 
awful consequences may follow ! 

(2.) Obedience to the call to the ministry being vol- 
untary, it follows, that it may be withheld; and the 
punishment inflicted upon him who disobeys will bear 
some proportion to that inflicted upon him who goes 
unsent into the vineyard of the Lord. Inattention to 
the work of grace may sometimes, we suppose, be the 
remediable cause of the former, and also of the latter: 
for many live for years undecided whether called 
or not, and even die without such powerful convic- 
tions as induce them to take orders, while others per- 
haps go out hastily under the impression of a divine 
recognition of their service. What palliating circum- 
stances may befriend these two classes in the last day, 
it is not for us to say. They may have such balanced 
intellects as to find no sufficient counterpoise in grace 
to induce them to fix upon such calling. In their 
secret deliberations no one particular field appears 
open to them ; they turn and turn, and find no ray 
of light that seems larger than another, and fail to 
decide what course to pursue. The annals of human 
experience are carefully searched in hope of light on 
the subject, but the circumstances of others are not 
applicable to their case. The mind, ever seeming 
hungry, finds no proper food ; the gnawings of un- 
satisfied desire prey upon it ; the voice of conscience 
is heard amidst the din of strife urging to duty, 
and yet the earth and the heavens remain the same, 
and the mind still hesitates in its course. Were some 
kind monitor, understanding the human heart, to 
whisper a word of counsel and guidance, or were the 
fates, with streaming torches, to run before in the 



206 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

path of duty, their wills would respond in haste. 
Were their organizations unique, or the predominance 
of one class of faculties strongly manifested, they 
would quickly seize upon the objects of right pursuit, 
and delight in being useful and happy. But their 
thoughts, though intensely active, only wheel in one 
confined circle of action and reaction ; and between 
hope and doubt, joy and fear, worn out with watching 
from the mastheads of their tempest-tossed bark for 
the true beacon on the shores of destiny, they go 
down to the grave as uncertain of their mission as at 
the beo-innino' of life. The other class at the first 
stirring impulse to action, under the incitements of 
circumstance having the appearance of genuineness, 
hasten out into the open avenues of some flattering 
prospect of zeal to be repaid by excellent results, and 
find no such marks of improvement following in the 
wake of their well-tried endeavours, and die missing 
perhaps the full benefits of their true mission. Both 
classes must meet with judgment at the great day; 
and as human sympathy is inclined to leniency in 
such instances of unfortunate misapprehension, it may 
not be wholly improper to conclude that infinite clem- 
ency will reckon with them .according to the intents 
of the heart. 

But the punishment destined for those who occupy 
middle ground between the two classes named is more 
explicitly stated. St. Paul, called at midday by a 
voice from heaven to be a disciple, and by other cir- 
cumstances of admonition, might well declare that a 
" woe " was pronounced against him if he preached 
not the gospel. So might have said Peter and John, 
Judas and others. Their calls were distinct, and dis- 



FAITH OF THE MINISTRY. 207 

tinctly met. And though some might inquire of 
Jesus if they might be with him in his journeys, and 
others engage in teaching without direct consultation 
with him, and neither receive rebuke, yet there are 
cases of such positive instructions to go, as in the 
instances of the prophets, as well as nearly all of 
those mentioned in the New Testament, that the 
chosen ones could not mistake their vocation to the 
ministry. The cases wherein those who officiated 
without any lawful pretence whatever, both in the 
Old and New Testament, met with merited rebuke 
from Heaven. 

3. The faith of the ministry and of the people nec- 
essary to sustain it. Having said that the work of 
the ministry was one of great responsibility and nat- 
urally demanding of those who enter upon the priestly 
office great capacities of some kind for the proper dis- 
charge of its functions, it may not be uninteresting to 
inquire into the main qualifications necessary for such 
exalted duties. Taking into consideration the senti- 
ment previously advanced, that these duties required 
extraordinary grace, it must not be supposed that 
these are independent of faith, or the result of a dif- 
ferent species of faith from that used by the ordinary 
Christian. Faith is always alike in nature, however 
it may differ in degree ; and hence where a double 
portion of it is bestowed it confers its increased bene- 
fits without changing its inherent quality; without 
changing the object upon whom it is exercised, or 
changing in all respects the character of the being 
exercising it. Christ remains the same. The main 
features of the mind are unchanged, and the belief of 
the heart exercised unto righteousness as in other 



20S PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

cases. No mere exercise of faith can raise the soul 
so high as to put it beyond the need of faith, nor does 
it, at least in our day, endue any with more than 
finite authority and powers, nor free any from the do- 
minion of the Spirit over the mind, so as to become dis- 
charged from further faith and obedience. The grace, 
it is true, enters into all the lineaments of the soul, 
and cleanses, brightens, strengthens, but it remains 
a human soul still, liable to the same temptations and 
degeneracy as before ; " to like passions with others/' 
as St. Paul expresses it. The great degree of faith 
required to meet the demands upon the priesthood is 
not, however, such a degree of it as changes all if any 
in their relations to God or their fellow-man : for 
though they have the faith of Enoch or Elijah lifting 
them in its maturity up to heaven, it is but a volun- 
tary principle of action, and may be disused until it 
decays and is lost ; and can never be used so greatly 
as to make one incapable of sin, or arrogate to him- 
self the full authority of God. 

And the people, when convinced of the call of one 
of their number to the ministry, in view of such high 
functions and superior graces, should accredit the 
labourer's mission, and revere his authority in pious 
matters. It becomes them also to cooperate with the 
ministry in " lifting up their hands " by prayer and 
faith, and other acts of more external service. But 
as the Scriptures assure us that Christ is indeed in 
the heavens, " at the right hand of God, to intercede 
for all," and " ever liveth " to do so, the faith of man 
must be centred there, and no object of earthly na- 
ture, whether in the heavens or the earth, must ever 
intrench upon human faith and vision, intercepting 



FAITH OF THE MINISTRY. 2C9 

the least degree of the light falling directly from the 
throne upon the soul of each and every one who wor- 
ships God. Could the degree of faith in use by the 
ministry be such as to raise them to infinite heights 
in power, they might with some show of propriety 
become the object of the personal observation of faith; 
but as man is only human he derives his authority 
from God, and that must be only such as to meet the 
requirements of God upon him. 

But lest the authority of the ministry should be 
assumed, and false guides install themselves in office, 
it would seem that reason requires some such fruits 
of piety, and a recognition of the calling by Heaven, 
as to assure the world of their title to minister in 
holy things. Having chosen a priesthood, God will 
doubtless own it by accepting its service of faith and 
obedience, and signify that acceptance by showing to 
the world the seals of such election and labour. Souls 
will be converted, and the already faithful will be 
confirmed in the faith and hopes of the gospel. This 
in these days is the only kind of evidence in addition 
to a godly walk, to be expected, as no miraculous 
powers appear now like those shown through the 
apostles in their times. God's acceptance of the 
apostles was such as to admit of no doubt in those 
who heard them : for they were either chosen by Christ 
in the presence of multitudes, or manifested such au- 
thority over unclean spirits and the diseases of the 
people that there could be no misplacement of credit 
in their election. And from the caution of St. Paul 
to those who might not attend to such things, "to lay 
hands suddenly on no man " in appointing him to an 
office so important, it is clear there was danger in so 



210 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

doing ; a danger growing out of the intrusiveness of 
the subject, or honest misconceptions of his calling. 
Our Church guards herself upon this subject in a pru- 
dent inquiry into the gifts, labours, and usefulness 
of her ministry — as the following extracts from her 
Discipline show : — 

"Quest 4. How shall we try those who profess to 
be moved by the Holy Ghost to preach ? 

"Answ. 1. Let the following questions be asked, 
namely: — Do they know God as a pardoning God? 
Have they the love of God abiding in them ? Do they 
desire nothing but God ? And, are they holy in all 
manner of conversation ? 

" 2. Have they gifts (as well as grace) for the 
work ? Have they (in some tolerable degree) a clear, 
sound understanding, a right judgment in the things 
of God, a just conception of salvation by faith ? And 
has God given them any degree of utterance? Do 
they spe&k justly, readily, clearly? 

" 3. Have they fruit? Are any truly convinced of 
sin, and converted to God by their preaching ? 

" As long as these three works concur in any one, 
we believe he is called of God to preach. These we 
receive as sufficient proof that he is moved by the 
Holy Ghost." 

The faith therefore, the obedience and the recog- 
nition by God of those who fill this office, entitle them 
to the reverence, confidence, and support of the people 
to be taught — but never to faith in them — devotion 
to them or fear of them. Not as vicegerents, but as 
" men of God," are they to be encouraged in their 
mission ; and though, having no power to remit sin, 



PRAYER AND FAITH. 211 

yet may they point the sinner to the " Lamb of God 
who taketh away the sins of the world." 

" Go, ye messengers of God, 

Like the beams of morning fly ; 
Take the wonder-working rod, 

Wave the banner-cross on high. 

O'er the pagan's night of care, 

Pour the living light of heaven ; 
Chase away his wild despair, 

Bid him hope to be forgiven." 



CHAPTER V. 

PRAYER AND FAITH. 

It is said that " without faith it is impossible to please 
God," as if there be no faith there can be no effort to 
obey. It may almost with equal propriety be said, 
that neglecting prayer it is not possible to please, as 
faith cannot long subsist without it. Jacob did not 
" see God face to face" without wrestling in prayer; 
nor would Moses have come down from the sacred 
mount with his features glowing with the reflected 
smiles of heaven, unless he had been in communion 
with his Maker. It therefore becomes important to 
ascertain whether prayer must be combined with faith 
in order to preserve or increase it ; and also the man- 
ner in which that assistance is rendered, with the ex- 
tent of the aid afforded. And 1. Is it true that prayer 
is to be joined with faith in order to preserve or in- 
crease it ? From reviewing the Old Testament scrip- 
tures, proof is not wanting to show that such com- 



212 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OP FAITH. 

bination was in use in tlie times of patriarch and 
prophet; whilst the New Testament discloses many 
instances of the like kind. When Abraham built his 
altar on the mountain between Bethel and Hai, he 
called upon the name of the Lord. When visiting 
this spot in after years, he again made supplication to 
God. So, afterwards, when he was told that the Lord 
was his shield and that he need not fear, he replied 
he had no heir, and intimated that above every other 
gift he preferred a successor. This was a petition, 
and prayer and faith resulted in the bestowment of 
this blessing, and " his faith was counted to him for 
righteousness." Of like success was his plea for the 
preservation of Sodom. His faith increased with its 
success, and the Lord ceased to commune with him 
only when he ceased further intercession in behalf of 
that wicked city. 

And in the day when the Lord delivered the Amor- 
ites into the hands of the Israelites, Joshua spake and 
said: " Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon, and thou, 
moon, in the valley of Ajalon ;" and so great was his 
faith and so earnest his prayer, that the daylight con- 
tinued and the night delayed until the people had 
avenged themselves upon their adversaries. When 
Samson leaned upon the pillars of the idol temple of 
the Philistines, — 

" That to the arch'd roof gave main support, 

Felt in his arms, with head awhile inclined, 
And eyes fast fixM he stood, as one who pray'd, 

straining all his nerves, he bow'd, 



As with the force of winds and waters pent, 
When mountains tremble, those two massy pillars, 
With horrible convulsion to and fro, 



PRAYER AND FAITH. 213 

He tugg'd, he shook, till down they came, and drew 
The whole roof after them with burst of thunder 
Upon the heads of all who sat beneath/' 

Samuel called upon the name of the Lord to send 
thunder and rain at the time of wheat harvest, to re- 
prove the people for their wickedness. With prayer 
and faith, Solomon dedicated the temple, and the Lord 
heard him and said : " I have heard thy prayer and 
thy supplication that thou hast made before me ; I 
have hallowed this house which thou hast built, to 
put my name there forever." Elijah cried unto the 
Lord that he might restore the widow's son to life, 
and his soul came into him again. Likewise, the 
same prophet, when contesting with the prophets of 
Baal, implored God to hear him and vindicate the 
cause of truth, and the fire descended from heaven. 
Jonah prayed from out of the fish's belly, and was 
heard and delivered. 

Our Saviour, when at the grave of Lazarus, lifted 
up his eyes and said, "Father, I thank thee that thou 
hast heard me!" By prayer and faith the two blind 
men were restored to sight ; as also the centurion's 
daughter and the woman of Canaan. By the same 
means the thief on the cross obtained the promise of 
a place in paradise ; and on the day of Pentecost, it 
was when the disciples were with accord in the ca- 
pacity of suppliants, that the Holy Ghost descended 
upon them all. Paul and Silas were praying in the 
prison at Philippi when the foundations were shaken 
and the doors opened of their own accord. 

These are a few of the many instances of prayer 
and faith combined, showing the importance of the 
union ; and there is reason to believe that in most of 



214 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

the instances where miracles were performed by the 
servants of God, as well as upon the more ordinary 
occasions of divine favour, they were either openly or 
secretly united. If it be true, that we are to " pray 
always with all manner of supplication," it follows 
that no faith can be exercised unaccompanied with 
prayer — either in its more open form or as ihe silent 
prayer of the soul in the daily walk of life. If, there- 
fore, faith is to be constantly exercised, and prayer is 
necessarily associated with it in its exercises, some 
such state must be supposed to exist as shall justify 
the belief, that while the soul reposes with unremit- 
ting confidence in an unbroken succession of momen- 
tary acts of faith — constituting its state of trust — the 
like state of the soul in relation to the exercise of 
prayer is also produced by a habit of devotion acquired 
from the daily use of secret prayer. So when the soul 
is sending forth its petitions with " groanings that 
cannot be uttered," indited by the Holy Spirit, the 
eye of faith is consciously or unconsciously fixed on 
Christ. Hence, when Cassian observes that the state 
of pure contemplation — a state which keeps the mind 
exclusively fixed upon God as the sole object of its 
thoughts and affections — " is never absolutely perpet- 
ual in this life," he means to say nothing against the 
state of the soul we have described ; but in the lan- 
guage of Fenelon, would doubtless admit that " a state 
of holy love, including and involving that of prayer" 
may be perpetual. 

In view of so many cases of the use of prayer and 
faith combined, it may be concluded that their union 
is of importance. Had they been united only in one 
instance it would serve to show that the combination 



PRAYER AND FAITH. 215 

was accredited ; but seeing the results in numerous 
instances to be favourable, the conviction is strength- 
ened of their constant and necessary dependence upon 
each other. 

" Faith in the Lord Jesus," says Dr. Clarke, "en- 
dues prayer with a species of omnipotence: whatsoever 
a man asks of the Father in his name, he will do it ; 
prayer has been termed the gate of heaven, but with- 
out faith that gate cannot be opened. He who prays 
as he should, and believes as he ought, shall have the 
fulness of the blessings of the gospel of peace." " I 
think," says Madam Guyon, " it would be better to 
combine ejaeulatory prayer with silent prayer. Let 
such ejaculations as the following, — my God, let 
me be wholly thine ! let me love thee purely for thyself; 
for thou art infinitely lovely! 0, my God, be thou 
my all! Let everything else be as nothing to me, — and 
other short ejaculations like these, be offered up from 
the heart." Again : " When you are reading on re- 
ligious subjects, during any part of the day, you 
would do well to stop now and then for a few mo- 
ments, and betake yourself to meditation and prayer 
in silence, especially when any portion of what you 
read touches and affects you." Nor is there scarcely 
to be found a more beautiful illustration of the union 
of prayer and faith in its more exalted stages than in 
that scene between Madam Guyon and Fenelon, in 
which they united their prayers for the blessing of 
Heaven upon them. " It was," says she, " in the early 
part of the next day that I saw him again. My soul 
desired that he might be all that the Lord would have 
him to be. We remained together for some time in 
silent prayer, and not without a spiritual blessing. The 



216 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

obscurity which had hitherto rested upon his spirit- 
ual views and exercises began to disappear ; but still 
he was not yet such as I desired him to be. Dur- 
ing eight whole days he rested as a burden on my 
spirit. During that time my soul suffered and wrestled 
for him ; and then the agony of my spirit passing 
away, I found inward rest." Side by side had these 
two saintly ones knelt at the house of a friend, where 
they had purposely met, and with invocations too deep 
for utterance communed with the Father of spirits. 
She, whose opinions and religious experience were des- 
tined to become familiar to ages yet unborn, and whose 
thoughts were then vibrating the whole French nation, 
and moulding public opinion into better forms ; he, 
under the same impress, destined to be the archbishop 
of Cambray, and a guide of the pious in after time — 
poured forth, side by side in the retreat of solitude, 
one volume of rich and melting thought, fusing and 
blending their moral natures into unity, and both 
sinking into the great sea of love, entranced and lost 
to earth — to themselves — to all but God. 

"As I believe," says Summerfield, "no growth in 
grace will take place unless there be regular stated 
seasons for private prayer, I purpose attending to three 
such seasons at least ; and that I will be much em- 
ployed in ejaculatory and mental prayer while lying 
in bed, night and morning — before I sleep, and before 
I get up." 

It is said that the first time the Eev. A. H. Hurd 
(the Wesleyan Student) felt an assurance in his own 
heart of his pardon and acceptance with God, was 
while engaged alone in prayer in the deep dark wood. 
It seems that in a retired part of the forest he had 



PRAYER AND FAITH. 217 

constructed for himself a little bower to serve as an 
oratory. Here he retired for secret devotion, and, 
surrounded by 

" A boundless continuity of shade/' 

he raised his heart and voice to that glorious Being 
who heareth prayer, and who 



"is ever present, 



In the wide waste as in the city full/' 

And in the pious resolutions he formed, respecting 
study, prayer, and meditation, there is found the fol- 
lowing rule laid down in regard to prayer : " To at- 
tend to private prayer four times each day; to wit, 
just after rising in the morning, at noon, about four 
or five in the evening, and just before going to rest at 
night." % 

Another writer says, "We must pray with all man- 
ner of prayer and supplication in the Spirit," con- 
sidering the Lord always present. And we can pray, 
though in company or business, w^hich we could not 
well dispense with for retirement It is the want of 
this spirit which makes us groan for relief from care 
and company. We can be as much with God in one 
place as in another. Many go to their prayers with 
such a load as takes them nearly all the length of 
their devotions to lay off; and if they get rid of it, 
think they*do well But this does not carry them for- 
ivard; it only brings up old arrearages. But constant 
prayer keeps the mind even ; and stated opportunities 
then will be real furtherances. But some Christians 
restrict too much their ideas of prayer to time, form, 
and attitude ; by a strict attention to which the in- 
tervals are often considered as relaxations from 

10 



218 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

the spirit of devotion, and are spent carelessly, if no 
worse." 

We should look continually to God, and in the lan- 
guage of the psalmist, " behold, as the eyes of ser- 
vants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the 
eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress, so our 
eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that he have 
mercy upon us." Thus, " setting the Lord always 
before us," we shall be kept in the spirit of devotion, 
and have access to God at all times ; and praying 
much and earnestly, we shall find it comparatively 
easy to watch, and always see Him who is invisible. 

" It is one thing," remarks Wayland, " to be an 
admirer of devotion, and another thing to be really 
devout. It becomes us, therefore, to cultivate these 
feelings, by actually exercising towards God the very 
tempers of mind indicated by our circumstances and 
our progressive knowledge. Thus, submission to his 
will, thankfulness for his mercies, trust in his provi- 
dence, reliance on his power, and sorrow for our sins, 
should be, not the occasional exercise, but the habit 
of our souls." This author again remarks that " in- 
asmuch as God has revealed to us the fact, that this 
is the condition on which he bestows the most valuable 
of his gifts, and as he has bound himself, by his 
promise, to reward abundantly all who call upon 
him, the utility of prayer to creatures sitimted as wo 
are is as manifest as our necessities are urgent, both 
for time and for eternity." 

Being therefore satisfied of the importance of prayer, 
as well as of its duty and necessity, it may be well to 
inquire into the philosophy of its exercise in tending 
to increase or sustain our faith. " Prayer is the direct 



PRAYER AND FAITH. 219 

intercourse of the spirit of man with the spiritual and 
unseen Creator." " Prayer is the offering of our de- 
sires to God for the things we and our fellow-creatures 
need/' says another writer. Or, as Montgomery, we 
think, still more lucidly and very beautifully expresses 
it, in our collection of hymns : — 

" Prayer is the soul's sincere desire, 

Utter' d or unexpress'd; 
The motion of a hidden fire 

That trembles in the breast. 

" Prayer is the burden of a szg7?,— 

The falling of a tear, — 
The upward glancing of an eye, 

When none but God is near. 

" Prayer is the Christian's vital breath, 

The Christian's native air ; 
His watchword at the gates of death, — 

He enters heaven with prayer." 

Prayer, therefore, presupposes an exercise of thought 
in immediate connexion with divine power and good- 
ness, and some definite conception of want giving rise 
to it. Without this view of the motive for prayer, it 
would not be known when there was an answer to it, 
even could it be entertained by the divine mind. A 
want unnecessary or unfelt could not become a sub- 
ject of prayer, for it would be impious to appear in 
the presence of God ignorant of the cause. Such 
prayer would become sin upon the principle of ac- 
countability for every idle thought or word, or for 
taking the name of God in vain. " For," as observes 
Dr. Clarke, " who can pray with any hope of success 
who cannot assign a reason to God and his conscience 
for the petition he offers?" The mind, by studying 
its wants in this intimate connexion with the source 



220 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OP FAITH. 

of relief, detaches itself from objects of sense and 
clears away the obscurities of the spiritual vision — 
opening a way towards heaven, and exerting an in- 
terest in the soul for its proper and necessary state, 
and impelling it onward. By prayer, the interest is 
quickened and the necessity felt until desire forces 
the soul in search of the promises of God, and rests 
upon them with an anxiety proportionate to the actual 
seriousness and poignancy felt. How shall these 
promises be appropriated for the relief of the soul? 
By purchase through the abundance of the impov- 
erished and forlorn specimen of humanity craving 
mercy? By descending into the deep bosom of the 
earth and searching for hidden treasure wherewith to 
buy? Or, by rising to the heavens and gathering 
into one donation the glorious constellations of the 
upper regions, and laying them at the feet of God ? 
No, but by faith ! The mind, convinced that all effort 
at purchase or merit is vain, appropriates through 
faith, which is the ready gift of God, all the relief 
promised, and rejoices at the simplicity and the moral 
necessity of such a plan of salvation. 

And, w T hilst prayer leads to faith, faith reacts and 
leads to prayer ; and God becomes ever present to the 
mind, as much so as material objects to the eye ; the 
various emotions of the moral nature forming a world 
within, while the senses are attending to the world 
without. The system of the inner man's existence, 
therefore, has its philosophy of being as well as the 
system of the outer man has its rules of action. In 
all life the one world but moves along in the other, 
and it is only when the body is taken away that the 
system of spiritual being can be fully realized. In 



PRAYER AND FAITH. 221 

time the body environs and clogs it ; it wants but the 
note of freedom to be sounded by the angel of death 
to leap forth in beauty and distinctness to the rapt 
vision of the heavenly host. It was this separation 
of soul and body that caused alarm to the tender 
and delicate sensibilities of the devoted Summerfield, 
which he describes in saying, " I fear not so much 
the consequences of death, but nature's last struggle — 
flesh shrinks when we contemplate that — when the 
spirit is separated from the body, it stands, after the 
dislodgement, trembling and quivering. ! it is 
that, it is that convulsive struggle which harasses the 
mind !" 

But though it is really an awful thing to exchange 
worlds and enter into the presence of God, and calcu- 
lated to make each one picture to himself the appre- 
hensive state of the departing spirit as one of "trem- 
bling," yet the sainted Summerfield had but little to 
dread in regard to the eternal world. Pure in mind, 
rich in " good works," — ripe for heaven, — his spirit 
but awaited the welcome home. Often, doubtless, his 
thought had wandered in his dreams afar off in the 
unknown land, and refreshed itself in communion 
with imaginary objects of beauty, and had thus fa- 
miliarized his mind with the delightful prospect of 
heaven, and now the time had arrived when the spirit 
was to be released to wander far, without ever return- 
ing to earth. For who of us have not had the soul 
steal away from this prison-house of clay when deep 
sleep hath fallen upon us, and timidly wander along 
the borders of the better land — seeing the glitter of 
angel wings — their cheerful smile — hearing their 
glad song with harpings, and bearing within its bosom, 



222 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

when it returns to its waking home, sweet remem- 
brance of its visions. 

The mind should be familiarized with the thought 
of death. The " conversation should be in heaven." 
We should set God continually before our eyes, and 
ever await the coming of the Bridegroom. But with- 
out prayer this cannot be. Without prayer faith 
will fail : — 

" Prayer is appointed to convey 

The blessings Heaven designs to give." 

And when this sole avenue is closed by neglect, it is 
to be expected that those blessings will cease. By 
ceasing to pray, what little sense of God's presence or 
existence remains does not associate that existence 
with the necessities of the soul ; the sense of spiritual 
want is finally lost ; the sense of the Divine Being 
lost ; the heavens appear to recede, and the voices of 
the distant land die upon the ear. 

Think not that prayer increases human want be- 
cause it discloses it. Human want exists independent 
of it, is equally immense without it, yea, is much en- 
larged without its use. Prayer is the first step in the 
way to heaven and also the last. As long as the soul 
has want, it must pray for relief. It should pray for 
a knowledge of that want. By prayer and faith it 
closes its earthly career with a sublimated apprehen- 
sion of the rest that remains for the people of God : 
in the language of the apostle, " apprehends as it is 
apprehended." 



FAITH OF THE CLOISTER. • 223 



CHAPTEE VI. 

FAITH OF THE CLOISTER. 

The charms of solitude have been sung by poets of 
every age, and often portrayed with glowing colours 
by writers of more sober mood. Meantime, a soft 
and hazy atmosphere has gathered around the vision, 
and the dim phantoms of the ideal repose under the 
shades of the dreamy land, never nearing, but receding 
from the opening view. In the midst of the toil and 
confusion of life man looks towards the place of re- 
pose, and, like David, in the anguish upon anguish 
that had come upon him, exclaims, " 0, that I had the 
wings of a dove, for then would I fly away and be at 
rest ; lo, then would I hasten my escape from the 
windy storm and tempest; lo, then would I wander 
far off." But when he escapes from the crowded mart, 
when he buries himself amid the deep recesses of the 
silent mountains, does he find there the phantoms that 
engaged the vision before ? They are yet further on ; 
there they still seem to repose upon their mossy beds 
amid the greenwood shade, and touch their harps in 
peaceful numbers. The young and old alike have 
this vague sense of distant rest. But, to judge more 
correctly of the nature of solitude and of what we 
call seclusion or the monastic rite, we invite attention 
to — L The effects of solitude upon the mind. 2. The 
effects of the cloister upon the mental and moral 
character. 

We believe the tendency of solitude to be weaken- 
ing to the mind. Like fountains, the mind must be 



224 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

fed by fresh streams of thought, and these are greatly 
dependent for variety upon the suggestive tendency 
of surrounding circumstances. Left to itself, the 
mind would never, on that account alone, cease to he 
exercised, hut the circle of thought would be either 
the same in extent or undergo deteriorating changes. 
There would be the objects of nature in many forms 
suggesting trains of thought: the howling tempest 
would turn the thought towards God, and the time 
also, perhaps, when the cheerful fireside of the old 
parental roof had gathered around it in other hours 
of elemental strife the victim of solitude with his com- 
panions ; the rain descending the sides of the moun- 
tains, filling the valleys and enlivening vegetation, 
would remind him of the kindness of God in thus 
satisfying the dry and thirsty land, causing the val- 
leys " to blossom as the rose," and " the little hills to 
rejoice on every side," — but the obtrusive thought 
would follow, pointing to the time when with busy 
hand the company of playmates formed their pigmy- 
mills and vessels by the margin of the chafing stream- 
let, or hunted for butter-cups and daisies on the moun- 
tains : the song of the birds in the forest would assure 
him anew of the wisdom and goodness, of the Creator 
in making them so beautiful and happy ; but the re- 
flection would run into that of the days of boyhood, 
when the quail whistled his harvest-tune amidst the 
whitening fields of grain at the old homestead, or the 
whippoorwill warbled her strange and enthusiastic ves- 
pers down by the skirt of hawthorn. The sun, moon, 
and stars would all create mild wonder at the work 
of the Almighty hand, but they would have their tale 
to tell of other days. 



FAITH OF THE CLOISTER. 225 

Hence, there would be a present and past existence 
embodying itself in tbe mind, and the thoughts con 
nee ted with the objects immediately around it would 
be more than outnumbered by those associated with 
distant or by-gone scenes — and the thought, so ready 
to take the wings of the morning and fly backward 
into the past, would become so habituated to this ex- 
ercise as to leave no inclination for a glance toward 
the future. No meditation of solitude partakes so 
largely of the future as the past ; and the events of 
the past being so often spread out before the mind on 
the broad canvass, and touched and retouched by the 
pencil of memory, it comes to pass that the vision of 
the future becomes a sealed book. Therefore no new 
thought is laid up ; it is but the old reminiscence re- 
vived ; it is but the man living over his past again — 
walking up and down the well-known way, and only 
casting a furtive glance towards the road yet to be 
travelled. Such a process will tame and sadden 
thought, causing the animal spirits to fail ; but it is 
a tameness that has only the semblance of docility, a 
sadness that savours of no penitence. For but let the 
stirring scenes of mirth come to be participated in 
afterwards, and the pulse quickens with the best, and 
the sadness loses its gloom ; so much so, that the pe- 
rusal of the books of pastimes or pleasures will ani- 
mate into a ready zeal all the stifled passions of the 
breast, and the soul go mourning for many days over 
the loss of the enticing vision. Thus solitary, sepa- 
rated from the haunts of men, the mind becomes a 
prey to imaginary conceits and stupid sadness, having 
wasted its elasticity until the new life loses all charm 
for the recluse, and the soul yearns for the old, which 

10* 



226 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

has become so strangely endeared in the separation. 
The evils of the new life are tangible, present, con- 
tinual ; those of the other have been lost in the rich 
sunlight of imagination resting upon the past. If 
placed on the solitary island, far distant from the 
homes of men, he watches often for the whitening 
sail and thinks of other lands ; then meditates his 
escape from such a living death, and finally flies from 
scenes of so much dreariness and discomfort. 

Or should he choose to die in the desolate place of 
his unrest, the chilling touch of the last enemy but 
makes him shudder and long for the warm and kind 
endearment of friendship to stay the cold creeping of 
the monster through the channels of life, and but now 
begins to turn the eye upon the growing forms of the 
other world, and beholds the Judge of all the earth 
with grief and not with joy. For where are his works 
that should follow the dead ? Where the noble mind 
to glorify its Maker in the other state ? Where the 
poor made glad by his bounty, the rich warned against 
vice, the young trained in the path of duty, the old 
borne to their graves in peace ? They are not, and 
the soul goes into eternity dwarfed in its excellences 
as a gift to Him who gave it. 

2. The effects of the cloister upon the mental and 
moral character. The cloister, we should Say, occu- 
pies middle ground between the ordinary duties and 
responsibilities of life and the solitary state we have 
been considering. It was perhaps designed to meet 
the difficulties of the latter, and counteract the influ- 
ence of the former. And in order to arrive at the 
motives and practice of the class of mankind termed 
monastic, occupying the ground between active citizen- 



FAITH OF THE CLOISTER. 227 

ship and the solitaire, it will be necessary to ask at- 
tention to some historical facts concerning the rise and 
progress of such an order. 

To go no further back than the first century, we 
find mention made of the order called Essenes, as one 
of the three Jewish sects. They lived, for the most 
part, in retired places, and remote from intercourse 
with mankind. They were scattered over S} r ria, 
Egypt, and the neighbouring countries ; and holding 
religion to consist in silence and meditation, they en- 
deavoured, by a strict mode of life, to raise themselves 
to higher degrees of virtue. The Therapeutce wished 
to pass for disciples of Moses, notwithstanding their 
departure from him. They gave up all their property, 
and sought retired situations, living in huts, without 
external worship or labour ; mortifying their bodies 
by fasting, and their souls by unceasing contempla- 
tion, in order to bring the spirit into light and liberty, 
and fit them for the celestial mansions. They as- 
sembled every week, heard a discourse, and ate bread, 
salt, and water together. Then followed a sacred 
dance, which lasted through the night, both men and 
women participating in it, somewhat like the custom 
of the Shakers. It is a question whether this sect 
belonged to the Essenes or not — Eusebius regarding 
them as Christian monks, established in Egypt by St. 
Mark ; and notwithstanding the unenviable position 
in which it places the Eomish writers, they zealously 
trace their high antiquity of monkery to such source. 

The Mystic philosophy was based on the Platonic 
theory " that reason is an emanation from God, and 
comprehends the elements of all truths." It was by 
this system maintained that silence, inaction, solitude, 



228 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

repose, and mollification of the body, tended to put in 
exercise this principle. For the men who withdraw 
attention from material objects fix it upon divine 
things, and being united to God by such contempla- 
tion, they behold truth with a clearness unknown to 
the vitiated mind. By such reasoning many were de- 
luded into retirement and the chastisement of their 
bodies by fasting and hardships. 

In the fourth century vast multitudes of monks and 
sacred virgins spread themselves over the Christian 
world. Many persons of this description had before 
been known among the Christians, dwelling in soli- 
tude; but it was not until the year 305 that they 
were collected into a community, and governed by 
fixed rules. Hilarian undertook the same thing in 
Palestine and Syria, and about the same period this 
mode of life was introduced into Mesopotamia and the 
neighbouring countries. These were followed by 
others, until, in a little time, the East was filled with 
persons who, neglecting the responsibilities and com- 
forts of life, and all intercourse with society, "pined 
away," to use the language of Mosheim, " amid vari- 
ous hardships, hunger, and sufferings, in order to a 
more close communion with God and the angels. 
And," continues the same writer, " the Christian 
Church would have remained free from these numer- 
ous tortures of the mind and body, had not that great 
and fascinating doctrine of the ancient philosophy 
gained credence among them, that to attain to happi- 
ness and communion with God, the soul must be freed 
from the influence of the body, and for that purpose 
the body must be subdued." 

This austere discipline passed from East to West, 



FAITH OF THE CLOISTER. 229 

and it is said that Athanasius transplanted this mo- 
nastic institution from Egypt into Italy, and estab- 
lished the first monastery at Eome. Afterward mon- 
asteries were erected in Gaul, and from thence this 
mode of life extended over the other countries of 
Europe. The first convent of mms was erected at 
Verona, by Zeno, the bishop, toward the close of the 
fourth century. 

The word monk first occurs in the fourth century, 
and monks were sometimes called ascetics, though all 
ascetics were not monks. The word ascetic is a gen- 
eric term ; the word monk denotes a species under 
that genus. But the monks were not all of the same 
kind: one kind living and eating together in the 
same house ; the other, called hermits, leading a soli- 
tary life in the country, and dwelling in hovels. 

Monks, then, were those who professed wholly to 
renounce the world with its cares and pleasures, in 
order to make religion their sole business. The man- 
ner in which it was proposed to be employed was called 
a rule. Yet hitherto these had not been required of 
them— perpetual celibacy, poverty, and obedience. 
Almost every monastery had a different rule from 
the rest, all however aiming at the same end — to with- 
draw their inmates from all secular concerns and 
worldly thoughts, so that they might be exclusively 
devoted to God. 

Abandoning themselves to one error, it is not sur- 
prising that we find the class alluded to falling into 
still greater ones, to the reproach of their own order, 
and still more so to human intelligence: for it is 
recorded of the Quietists, an order of Mystics at Mount 
Athos, in Thessaly, that in accordance with the doc- 



230 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

trine of a divine light hid in the soul, they seated them- 
selves daily in some retired place, and gazed stead- 
fastly on some particular object ; and in this exercise 
they boasted that a sort of divine light beamed forth 
upon them from the mind itself, which produced the 
greatest delight. When asked the nature of such 
light, they answered that it was the glory of God ; 
and, to illustrate, referred to the light manifested at 
the transfiguration of Christ. Nor should this account 
appear strange, for among the rules of all the eastern 
orders, whether Christians, Mohammedans, or pagans, 
there is this precept — -that the eyes must be steadily 
fixed every day for some hours upon some particular 
object ; and that whoever does this will be rapt into 
a kind of ecstasy ; and, being thus united to God, will 
see wonderful things, and enjoy pleasures inexpressi- 
bly great. But though this curious exercise is to be 
found so extensively in the East, where the habit of 
the people is different from what it is in the western 
nations ; yet many of the Latins of the Mj r stic class 
enjoin the same service on themselves. From this 
position in sentiment it was easy to descend to the 
tenets and practices of the Brethren and Sisters of the 
Free Spirit, w T ho, through their celebrated leader, un- 
dertook to demonstrate " that the being, when ab- 
sorbed in the love of God, is free from all laws, and 
may gratify every natural propensity without guilt." 
It is true, as observes Mosheim, that changes were 
made in regard to the rules of the monastics ; " but 
the best and most sacred of these changes were es- 
teemed trivial and imperfect by those whose eye was 
fixed on the ancient discipline, and who wished to see 
the lives of monks strictly conformed to their first 



FAITH OF THE CLOISTER. 231 

rules ; and that the number of these in the Romish 
Church was not inconsiderable." 

From all we can glean it is apparent that the Chris- 
tian monks borrowed their peculiarities from the prac- 
tical Essenes, while the hermits copied after the Ther- 
apeutse, or theoretical Essenes- — all setting out with 
the belief that the body was a malignant substance, 
and the temporary prison of the soul, and consequently 
were led to sever the ties of society, so as to elevate 
themselves in virtue. 

Now the very existence of society depends upon the 
active cooperation of its members. If one withdraws, 
and all should follow the example, there is an end to 
society. The whole, therefore, being made dependent 
upon the parts, some special reason or necessity must 
exist for a change in this all-important law of life. 
There must be a necessity, either amounting to the 
salvation of the anchorite, his moral advancement, or 
a positive command from God. And, 1. A necessity 
involving the salvation of the soul. 

To say that an individual living under the influence 
of society and in the enjoyment of the means of grace 
sustains so great a loss as to compel him to fly to 
other situations for relief, or to escape destruction, is 
saying that he labours under disabilities so peculiar 
as to require extraordinary means of restoration to a 
true religious state. For taking active life to be the 
normal state, at least the ordinarily necessary means 
of securing happiness must exist therein, else the vast 
majority of mankind must be destined to perdition; 
for it is evident if all engage in the flight from 
dreaded ill, none will be left to conduct human affairs. 
If, therefore, the wings of faith are so unfledged that 



232 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

the soul cannot rise when aided by virtue of active 
duties, it betokens a weakness that should, in seeking 
a remedy, be sure of finding increased aid. If salva- 
tion depends upon it, the utmost caution is requisite 
in laying a good foundation. Now as the salvation 
of all is made to depend upon faith and obedience to 
God, escaping from the world cannot alter this ar- 
rangement. It always remains the same. Increased 
facilities are therefore to be expected by which to ex- 
ercise faith most strongly and effectually; and to do 
this the mind must be as highly informed as possible, 
and the heart taught to respond in feeling to the en- 
ergies of the Holy Spirit. It has ever been a maxim 
that activity, contact of mind with mind, is the best 
means of improvement. Attrition produces heat in 
inanimate substances ; so it produces energy in the 
mind. Mind must have all its necessary incitements 
to mature it. The heart, in like manner, needs its 
objects of sympathy and care to mature it in good- 
ness. To be enlarged, both must have their elements 
in use. Large fields of mental and moral vision must 
be opened to keep both in proper exercise. But it is 
only in busy life that these means are fully to be 
found, and to that end the chief good and even exist- 
ence of society is made to depend upon extended co- 
operation among its members. If this be so, the 
change from the theatre of the world to that of the 
cloister in search of more means of happiness is at 
best a questionable undertaking, and fails to answer 
the required purpose — for the safety of the soul, it is 
assumed, depends upon its being the sole means of 
relief. 

2. Enhanced moral advancement. If the mind 



FAITH OF THE CLOISTER. 233 

suffers from the retreat from life into seclusion and a 
dependence mostly upon its own resources for strength, 
then the spiritual condition will not only not he im- 
proved, but suffer in the attempt. As the lesser propo- 
sition is contained in the greater, the argument show- 
ing that salvation is not made dependent upon it is 
proof sufficient of the inutility of such means of im- 
provement. If it he true that the mind actually 
suffers by sounding a retreat, it follows that no un- 
usual good should he anticipated. Hence, another 
reason must be assigned for this mysterious and sin- 
gular umpirage upon the manifest law of nature, and 
that is, 3. A command of God must require it. The 
proverb has long existed " that the idle should not 
eat bread ;" and "Why stand ye here all the day idle?" 
was the inquiry of our Saviour addressed to the la- 
bourers. "Multiply and replenish the earth" was 
among the earliest commands. The parable of the 
"buried talent" was to be a warning to all wdio hid 
their Lord's money. 

It is true there were Nazarites in former times, but 
the vow did not usually prevent their entering upon 
the duties of life. Besides, the vow of the first Naz- 
arites was only voluntary, and the law under the Le- 
vitical priesthood made provision for them in directing 
the manner of their purification in case any should 
choose to become such. But at no time was there a 
command that men should become separated from 
their fellow-men for life and have no connexion with 
them. The vow of the Nazarite was mostly tempora- 
ry, and was designed to assist him by deranging his per- 
sonal appearance, so as to restrain him from mingling 
with the world until he had performed his religious 



234 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

service in a more connected or faithful manner. The 
intention being good, provision was made for the ex- 
ercises, enjoining the priest to pursue the course 
marked out in the law. 

But let us further consider some other serious diffi- 
culties to be encountered in separating from the world 
and being dedicated for life to the duties of the clois- 
ter. And, 1. Contact with only a few of such as en- 
tertain the same views is calculated to originate and 
maintain error. One of the best cures for bigotry is 
to become acquainted with the varied creeds of others. 
He who knows no other creed but his own in which he 
was reared will be likely to believe that to be not only 
the best, but the only creed worthy of respect. It is 
by contact with the various fraternities of man that 
the knowledge properly constituting the common stock 
of the world can be said to be beneficial The world 
is of ancient growth ; ages have been adding rich 
stores to the great bulk, and this treasury of practical 
wisdom becomes common property. To draw from this 
large fountain is the privilege and duty of all, as far 
as they are able. He who, in the midst of rich abun- 
dance, should feed on the tainted morsel as being 
best, would be likely to lose much of nourishment and 
pleasure. Therefore, the mind, neglecting the volume 
of practical wisdom and trusting to its own independ- 
ent advancement, will find its views to contract ; ca- 
price to become sound logic ; superstition its best vir- 
tue ; and its diseases generally the utmost health. 
And how is the truth to be discovered ? There are 
no means of comparison with the views of others of 
differing thought, and if errors are imbibed they are 
matured into great and lasting ones. 



FAITH OF THE CLOISTER. 235 

2. Extreme rigour weakens the mind as well as 
body. It is commonly the design of those who desert 
the world for the narrow confines of the cloister, to 
counteract the supposed evils and dangers of society 
by reversing, as far as possible, its habits and cus- 
toms. And not the least of these changes is excessive 
rigour of mind and body. Any formulary of thought, 
therefore, that will most deaden the energy of the body, 
and any regimen for the body that will react on the 
mind, is greedily used until pallor sits upon the cheek, 
the eye grows unmeaning in its steady gaze, and the 
whole man begins to be the ghost of his former self — 
a wreck of blasted prospects. 

Madam Guyon was, therefore, administering wise 
counsel to her friend when she observed, " Do not re- 
sort to austerities or self-inflicted mortifications. They 
may do for others, but not for you. Your feeble health 
does not allow of it. If it were otherwise — -if you had 
a strong and sound body — and especially, which is a 
great point in connexion with physical mortification, 
if you suffered yourself to be ruled by your appetites, 
I should probahly give different advice. A system of 
abstinence and of physical repression could hardly fail 
in that case to be beneficial. Mortify your peculiar 
tastes, your propensities, your inclinations — in a word, 
mortify yourself by bearing, at all times, in a Chris- 
tian temper, whatever thwarts the natural life, what- 
ever is displeasing and troublesome to the natural 
sensibilities ; and thus place yourself in union and 
fellowship with the sufferings of Christ." He does 
well who, in fasting from other things which the ap- 
petites improperly crave, lives upon mere bread and 
water ; but he does better who, in fasting from his own 



236 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF PAITH. 

desires and his own will, lives upon God's will alone. 
This is what St. Paul calls the circumcision of the 
heart" 

The sentiment that the mind is strongest when 
the body is weakest is a gross libel on nature, and 
an error that has tended much, it is to be feared, 
to drive men out from active spheres of duty into 
the dens and caves of the earth, or those who should 
be mothers into the cells of that living grave — the 
nunnery. Had God designed no well-poised ar- 
rangement between mind and body, why does he 
send into life the robust, healthy, and cherubic babe 
to gladden the parental eye, and why mould the 
brawny arm and giant muscle, or give almost the 
speed of the roe to the chamois-hunter? Why also 
fill the earth with harvests of plenty, and give appe- 
tite to feast upon its bounty? Middle ground is usu- 
ally one of most safety, and so it is here. That con- 
dition of body is usually most favourable to the 
development of mental strength which depends upon 
the liberal but reasonable use of the supplies of Provi- 
dence : not to surfeit the body because of abundance, 
but use all things in moderation. And at that point 
where the body attains its greatest maturity and 
soundness, there will the mind find its happiest con- 
dition — requiring punishment by abstinence as a cor- 
rective in proportion to the excess in indulgence. 
Hence any regimen deranging the rules of nature, or 
what is worse, disregarding them altogether, will 
meet with rebuke calculated to set the party right in 
his views, whether he is a gourmand or an anchorite. 

We therefore conclude that as the mind of the glut- 
ton and debauchee is dimmed and confused by means 



FAITH OF THE CLOISTER. 237 

of excesses, and finally, from continued indulgence, 
fails to perceive clearly its proper objects of pursuit, 
so does the mind of the extremely self-denying after 
long-protracted abuse become, in a measure, incapa- 
ble of that energetic action, or that clear apprehen- 
sion of truth of which the minds of those following 
the middle track are capable. Mind and body come 
into existence not separate but united, and this union 
is to remain till death. What injuries are inflicted 
on the one may, therefore, be reasonably expected 
to cause sympathy and suffering in the other, and the 
great care of all should be to attend to the maturity 
of both. When both attain their utmost vigour and 
health, then it is that we discharge our duty towards 
them ; and however much our purposes of moral im- 
provement, honestly entertained, may mitigate pun- 
ishment in case of miscalculation and injury to the 
soul, while those who practise self-indulgence to the 
utmost, pretending to seek health and good, suffer with- 
out excuse, the question should become one of certain 
safety instead of doubtful experiment — of regard for 
the elements of nature's code, while designing to pay 
obedience to her higher and less-defined laws. 

Faith is exercised through the mind, and its best 
exercise is when the mind is strongest and most clear 
in its apprehensions of duty, of things divine, and of 
its own mode of being. Crippled in its energies by 
overtasking and disuse, the vision becomes more vague 
and unimpressible. Like machinery out of order, its 
movements are irregular and unreliable, with the 
prospect of growing worse instead of better. Though 
feeling as if always discharging certain duties, yet 
the wholesome atmosphere of joy and exultation is 



238 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

absent. With weak and quivering muscle comes 
effeminacy of mind; and as old age, when borne down 
with the weight of years, usually if not always labours 
under decrepitude, so the mind, wavering in the dreams 
of sickly fancy, cannot lay hold of the mighty senti- 
ment of the bold and vigorous-hearted. 

And should temptation come in such an hour — and 
is it not always present? — should it present its pictures 
of fine-drawn fancy, and pleasing light and shade, 
what hope does the tempter realize, that by constant 
effort at watching the paths of thought in his victim, 
by mingling the false with the true, by following up 
the device until the mind tires with repulsing effort, 
the mystified thought may catch the fatal warmth, 
and in the whirl of frenzy and delight mar the whole 
of its former prospect ! 

Now will extraordinary grace be afforded those who 
put themselves beyond the pale of society by mere 
volition, leaving the earth to the denizens who are 
bound to inhabit it? In the open garden was the 
first man placed, and when the curse was pronounced 
and he driven out, it was to till the earth. Free was 
he to roam amid the mountains and valleys — on the 
land and on the sea. By multiplying his race was he 
to subjugate the wild beasts, and by care and industry 
sustain life. Shall those who dwell in caverns, or are 
domiciled in cells, in the face of such command, meet 
with the peculiar smiles of Heaven ? Shall such as 
with bolt and bar exclude the gladdening day, and 
the sight and voice of men scarcely less so, have more 
richly the presence of God, who inhabits all space, 
than those who toil in the midst of busy life, and hope 
for no narrow house but that of the dead? Unless 



FAITH OF THE CLOISTER, 239 

God bestows peculiar grace in such instances, where 
is the realization of the cloisterer's dream ? The 
mind is not increased in strength thereby ; and faith, 
to leave out of the inquiry the thought of obedience, 
that faith so dependent upon the bounty of Providence 
and the well-toned mind, is made to hope for special 
aid to counterbalance these results. There being no 
promise of such, the probability is that none will be 
granted. God's government, in spiritual matters, is 
as economical as in its other departments, and he will 
not give more than " grace for grace " used to his 
honour. If the talent is laid in the earth, why should 
he add yet another thereto? Were it to be done, the 
ungratifying response at the last day would be, " Thy 
talents have I buried in the earth ; lo, take that that 
is thine !" 

Therefore placing the most liberal construction 
possible upon this subject, we can only say, that if 
there be instances among mankind where continued 
seclusion for pious purposes should be tolerated or en- 
couraged, they are to be seen in that class who may be 
said to have lived out their day by unfortunate license 
in excess, and thereby unfitted themselves for associat- 
ing with their fellow-men, or where such associations 
would naturally or necessarily engender unhappiness 
and vice ; or that class whose mental and moral organ- 
ization is so defective or inefficient as to make their 
existence a blank — that find their sole happiness in 
obscurity and unobserved devotion. In such a school 
of separation from the world, these may find their 
faith elevated, and their hearts infused with more joy 
than might have fallen to their lot under the search- 
ing eye of men. But even in such instances, all the 



240 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

circumstances of aggravation may fail to justify a 
course ever fraught with serious and uncertain de- 
tails. But for the vigorous and sound in mind — 
whose strong arms might defend their nation in times 
of danger, and give plenty to honest firesides, or 
whose thoughts might indoctrinate a hemisphere with 
practical knowledge — for such to immerse themselves 
within the cell meets with the reproof of candid senti- 
ment. And what is no better — it may be far worse — 
for the maiden just maturing into loveliness, with a 
tear for sorrow and a smile at joy — with innate yearn- 
ing after the beautiful — with ability to gladden the 
threshhold with innocent and sportive children, and 
the power to train them up for a high destiny in time 
and eternity — for such to bid adieu to the scenes of 
earth, and, domiciled amid the gloom of the nunnery, 
to expect to catch inspiration from its silence and 
repose, with an eye resting on the page of truth, but 
an ear open to the least voice coming from the world 
without — is to risk happiness in life for a dream, and 
the well-being of a soul for a hope. 



CHAPTEK VII. 

FAITH OF ACTIVE LIFE. 

Nature reveals to us a state of continued action* 
Above, beneath, and around, time's watchword is un- 
rest. The ocean, grown ancient from long duration, 
shows the same disquiet in his dominions as before 
the flood. He still lashes the sides of the moun- 
tains and sends out his wail. No shore — no strand — 



FAITH OF ACTIVE LIFE. 241 

no cave but what receives his daily and well-timed 
visits : no dark caverns range on his borders unen- 
tered. Now raging and rejoicing in his mighty 
strength — casting up his waves to the clouds — now 
faint and weary, quivering with the palpitations of a 
calm, but always in motion, without hope of rest. 

Above, we look and behold the storm-cloud passing 
swiftly onward. With lightning and muttering thun- 
der, the heavens w r age the elemental strife ; and when 
over, and the blue sky reveals itself, still fleece after 
fleece of white mist earnestly course each other on 
their unknown missions. 

Beneath, as if the forgers of those dark dominions 
were labouring night and day, and their earnest en- 
deavours resulted in the overflow of the liquid draughts 
from their seething cauldrons, there are terrible signs 
of commotion. 

Man must till the earth — for "by the sweat of his 
brow shall he live." This was the law in the days of 
Adam, and will be the law till the end of time. There 
is no escape from its obligations; for the brier and 
thorn will spring up, and daily toil be required to 
keep them under. The fruitful showers that bless 
the fields of the husbandman also cause the weeds to 
flourish and mature ; and he must rise early in order 
to fill his barns with plenty. If he sleeps, the noxious 
growth gains the ascendency, and no common toil will 
prevent unhoped-for barrenness. 

Forests must be felled to give place to cottage and 
field. Hence the axe of the woodsman plies its task, 
while the echoing sound and the falling timber tell 
of animated life ; and when the way is cleared, and 
the earth opened by plough and harrow, and the mead- 

11 



242 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

ows begin to give forth grass, and the hills the vine — 
the tinkling bells of grazing cattle, and the merry 
voices of the vine-dressers, speak of restless life. And 
at last, when the harvests ripen and the sickle is put 
in by the hastening reapers, the truth is the same — 
there is no time for inaction. 

So also must the borders of man's habitation be 
guarded from the presuming foe; and the sword is 
grasped, and with the tread of marching hosts, the 
conflict in arms, the clangour of trumpet and dying 
wail, there comes no voice telling of rest. And when 
war is ended, nations at peace, commerce spreads her 
sails on every sea, and the swift-winged ships, passing 
and repassing, likewise assure us of the activity even 
of a state of peace. Therefore, casting the eye over 
the earth, the reflection is that the energies of nature, 
from the least to the greatest, are at work ; and that 
in all her avenues, like the arteries of some gigantic 
frame, the pulsation of ceaseless activity is felt ; and 
it is at one period, and one only, that she appears 
to rest — and that is at night. The repose of night 
seems to promise a period when all action will cease ; 
a time when the hum of life shall be hushed in silence. 
But yet nature sleeps nightly, only to wake again at 
dawn, renewed in vigour and ready for progress. And 
even in this slumber how wakeful is creation ! For 
while man sleeps the moon and stars come out from 
their secret places, and, like restless spirits, wander 
amid the heavens. There is rest for neither earth, 
sea, nor the heavenly bodies, and none for man. Ac- 
tion is the law of humanity from the beginning of 
life to its close. 

It, therefore, being the design of the Creator that 



FAITH OF ACTIVE LIFE. 243 

man should spend his days in action, it becomes him 
to yield obedience to the great law of necessity, as in 
this work will God be most highly honoured, and hap- 
piness most fully secured. Out of the apparent com- 
motion in natural things will spring the greatest 
peace and harmony. This is but a state of probation, 
after which, if man profits by it, will succeed the hap- 
piest results. It is not intended as a place of perpet- 
ual existence ; and the changes constantly occurring 
around us should admonish of its short duration. 

It is important, therefore, to put our nature under 
cultivation so as to serve God best ; and this can only 
be done by training the young in his fear, by edu- 
cating the manly powers, and by pointing the old as 
they die to " the hope within the veil." " Man is 
born like a wild ass's colt " — he strays immediately 
upon entering life, and it is only by the " nurture and 
admonition of the Lord n that youth can expect to be 
useful and happy. If left to themselves, they will 
eagerly pursue gilded toys, or become rooted in vice. 
It is the seed-time of life, and if the enemy labours in 
sowing he will also expect to reap. The unrenewed 
heart is properly, because naturally, his field, and he 
will surely rise early in his work lest there should be 
no harvest. And shall we sleep while the enemy is 
sowing tares in the youthful heart? Bather let us 
awake to action, and by early training in the domestic 
circle, in the Sabbath school, everywhere, counteract 
the baneful influence of sin. 

With the right education of youth half the evils of 
middle life are removed. Born into an active state, 
nurtured into the burning zeal of manhood, how can 
he unclothe himself of energy and court inglorious 



244 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

ease ? When all nature is in motion, how shall he 
sleep? With the noise of thoroughfares, with the 
clatter of wheels on the highways, with the thousand 
of kindred voices saluting him from every quarter, 
shall he hide himself in secret places? Trained aright, 
he will go to his proper calling, and while the field 
opens before his ploughshare, the anvil resounds with 
his sturdy stroke, the sail is unfurled on the ocean — 
the mechanical, the scientific, or the learned arts of 
life are applied to their utmost limit — he will raise his 
thought to heaven in contemplation of the day when 
the signs of activity shall cease. 

The buoyant and glad heart formed by busy life is 
best calculated to form lofty aspirations. With nervous 
desires to pursue the path of duty, he searches for fields 
of usefulness ; and while meditating the amelioration 
of man's condition, he forgets not to feed the hungry, 
clothe the naked, and teach the poor at home. While 
caring for the souls of men, he cherishes their bodies 
also. Is distress around him? his heart yearns over 
it, and consolation is given. Do any stand honestly 
idle in the market-places? such are helped or encour- 
aged. Do any err? they are not cast off with scorn or 
rebuke, but kind words of sympathy are tried to bring 
them back to virtue. 

Now as " no man liveth to himself or dieth to him- 
self," and as the poor are " ever with him," what 
strange but simple means has God used to elevate 
character ! To prevent selfishness and pride on the 
one hand, and to encourage a spirit of gratitude and 
humility on the other, he has made one portion of the 
world rich and the other poor. And in this extensive 
field of poverty, what opportunities to the rich to deal 



FAITH OF ACTIVE LIFE. 245 

out their bounty, awakening in their own bosom a 
feeling of joy scarcely less than that conferred by the 
bestowal of charity ! Charity ! So great are its bless- 
ings that it is made the business of life. It is the crown- 
ing grace of the Spirit. It is the golden link in the 
chain uniting the soul to happiness. Without it there 
is no heaven to any — ivith it fully, a heaven to all. 

Into such a field, therefore, it is that active life thrusts 
mankind, and it is only here that faith should be ex- 
pected to thrive best ; for it is only here that the path 
of duty lies ; and he who would walk onward richly 
laden with the fruits jof well-doing, should crave, not 
desert, the scenes where youth are to be taught the 
way of life, anguish healed in the bruised heart, the 
famishing fed, the naked clad and warmed, the sick 
and dying attended with that service required by their 
condition. 

These views are consonant with the reflections of 
Eev. Samuel Wesley on the occasion of the death of 
Mr. Morgan of Christ Church : — 

11 While in his prime, he waited not for noon, 
Convinced that mortal never lived too soon, 
As if foreboding then his little stay, 
He made his morning bear the heat of day. 
Fix'd, while unfading glory he pursues, 
No ill to hazard, and no good to lose. 

O O O O O Q 

He dared for heaven this flattering world forego, 
Ardent to teach, as diligent to know. 

Gladdening the poor, where'er his steps he turn'd, 
Where pined the orphan, or the widow mourned, 
Where prisoners sigh'd beneath guilt's horrid stain, 
The worst confinement and the heaviest chain, 
Where death's sad shade the' uninstructed sight 
Veil'd with thick darkness in the land of light. 



246 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

He knew that ivorks our faith must here employ, 
And that 'tis heaven's great business to enjoy. 
Fix'd on that heaven he death's approaches saw, 
Nor vainly murniur'd at our nature's law." 

But if it be said such constant engagements leave 
no time for devout meditation and prayer, and hence 
the soul must suffer, it may be replied, that our Sa- 
viour prescribed methods of preventing injury from 
such sources when he encouraged retirement from the 
busy scenes of life to spend a brief season in devo- 
tion. And with the strength the mind acquires by 
the various exercises to wdiich ^ptive life subjects it, 
the prayer w r ill usually be earnestly and honestly 
made. Used to energetic conduct, the mind ranges 
high, and the heart, just withdrawn from the sympa- 
thies, the woes of life, with real subjects of attention 
to exercise it, faith quickens into an agreeable confi- 
dence in God. The worshipper feels the responsibili- 
ties resting upon him, and that he is endeavouring to 
meet them. It is with good grace, therefore, that he 
makes his prayer and supplication, and looks forward 
to the reward of the faithful. His prayers are not 
dreams where the thought wanders through the spirit- 
land in search of God ; his eye of faith sees God al- 
ways near : his walk is with God. 

There are bracing influences in active life. Faith 
is the gift of God, but at the same time is given most 
freely where it is most used. As activity is engen- 
dered by contact and sympathy, so it quickens the en- 
ergy of the soul ; and the spiritual conceptions, though 
least tinted with fancy, beam out into a sparkling 
brightness that animates while it gladdens, and 
strengthens as it cheers. 



FAITH OF ACTIVE LIFE. 247 

What more can be added to guide the candid into 
proper search for the sources of happiness, or encour- 
age those who are already devoutly employed ? What 
more to indoctrinate the slothful, the over-indulgent, 
or too self-denying in the principles of virtue ? Are 
illustrations necessary — those exemplifications derived 
from personal conduct? If so, they are at hand ; and 
where in the history of religion since the days of the 
apostles do we find a more perfect pattern of zeal, 
charity, and patience, than in the founder of Method- 
ism ? Whatever the place, or time, or occasion of 
duty, we behold in John Wesley prompt and unshaken 
energy, wise and judicious conduct, a catholic spirit, 
and a most comprehensive view of the spiritual wants 
of mankind — fitting him for a great agent of good in 
his day, and as no less distinguished for usefulness 
now that he is no more. It was this spirit of zealous 
piety burning within him that caused him to speak on 
this wise : — 

" I. Whether it does not concern all men of all con- 
ditions, to imitate Him as much as they can who went 
about doing good ? 

" Whether all Christians are not concerned in that 
command, ' While tve have time let its do good to all 
men f 

" Whether we shall not be more happy hereafter the 
more good we do now? 

" Whether we can be happy at all hereafter, unless 
we have, according to our power, fed the hungry, clothed 
the naked, visited those that are sick and in prism, and 
made all these actions subservient to a higher pur- 
pose, even the saving of souls from death ? 

" Whether it be not our bounden duty always to re- 



248 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

member that He did more for us than we can do for 
him who assures us, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto 
one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it 
unto me ? 

" II. Whether upon these considerations we may not 
try to do good to our acquaintance? Particularly, 
whether we may not try to convince them of the ne- 
cessity of being Christians ? 

" III. Whether, upon the considerations above men- 
tioned, we may not try to do good to those that are 
hungry, naked, or sick? In particular, whether, if we 
know any necessitous family, we may not give them 
a little food, clothes, or physic, as they want? 

" IV. Whether, upon these considerations above men- 
tioned, we may not try to do good to those that are 
in prison ? In particular, whether we may not release 
such well-disposed persons as remain in prison for 
small sums ?" 

Nor, perhaps, will a few extracts from this excel- 
lent man's Journal, taken somewhat at random, ex- 
hibit to less advantage the personification in him of 
great virtues and the most zealous effort in the cause 
of humanity. Therefore, without apology to the gen- 
erous reader, we follow Mr. Wesley through a few 
entries : — 

"Friday, Oct 17, 1735. — I began to learn German, 
in order to converse with the Moravians, six-and-twenty 
of whom we had on board. On Sunday, the weather 
being fair and calm, we had the morning service on 
quarter-deck. I now first preached extempore, and 
then administered the Lord's supper to six or seven 
communicants. A little flock — may God increase it ! 

" Tuesday, 21. — Our common way of living was 



FAITH OF ACTIVE LIFE. 249 

this, (on ship-board:) From four t\]\jive in the morn- 
ing each of us used private prayer. From five to seven 
we read the Bible together, carefully comparing it 
(that we might not lean to our own understandings) 
with the writings of the earliest ages. At seven, 
breakfasted. At eight, public prayers. From nine to 
twelve I usually learned German. At twelve we met 
to give an account to one another what we had done 
since our last meeting, and what we designed to do be- 
fore our next. About one, dined. The time from 
dinner to four we spent in reading to those of whom 
each of us had taken charge, or in speaking to them 
severally, as need required. At four were the even- 
ing prayers ; when either the second lesson was ex- 
plained, (as it always was in the morning,) or the 
children were catechised and instructed before the 
congregation. From five to six we again used private 
\yrayer. From six to seven I read in our cabin to two 
or three passengers. At seven I joined with the Ger- 
mans in their public service. At eight we met again 
to exhort and instruct one another. Between nine and 
ten we went to bed, where neither the roaring of the 
sea nor the motion of the ship could take away the re- 
freshing sleep which God gave us." 

What an example of method and perseverance in 
duty do we here see in the exercises of one day, and 
that too at sea ! Do the ministers of the gospel in 
these latter days closely imitate it and find that sweet 
repose in sleep, when their daily toils are over, here 
described ? 

Nor let us withhold that touching incident in his 
experience while about to embark for England, after 
having visited America for the purpose of instructing 

11* 



250 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

the Indians. He had left Savannah with the design 
of going to Port Eoyal ; but being unable to procure a 
guide at Purysburg, he set out in company with a few 
fellow-travellers without one an hour before sunrise. 
After walking two or three hours, they met with an 
old man who led them into a small path, near which 
was a line of blazed trees, (i. e. marked by cutting off 
part of the bark,) by following which, he said, they 
might easily reach Port Eoyal m five or six hours. 

" We," continues the Journal, " were four in all, 
one of whom intended to go to England with me, the 
other two to settle in Carolina. About eleven we came 
into a large swamp, where we wandered about till 
near two. We then found another blaze and pursued 
it till it divided into two ; one of these we followed 
through an almost impassable thicket, a mile beyond 
which it ended. We made through the thicket again, 
and traced the other blaze till that ended too. It now 
grew toward sunset; so we sat down, faint and weary, 
having had no food all day except a ginger-bread cake 
which I had taken in my pocket. A third of this w r e 
had divided among us at noon, another third we took 
now, the rest we reserved for morning. But we had 
met with no water all the day. Thrusting a stick into 
the ground, and finding the end of it moist, two of 
our company fell a digging with their hands, and at 
about three feet depth found water. We thanked God, 
drank, and were refreshed. The night was sharp; 
however there was no complaining among us, but, 
after having commended ourselves to God, we lay down 
close together and (I at least) slept till near six in the 
morning. ,} 

As showing, in a striking manner, the abundance 



FAITH IN ACTIVE LIFE. 251 

of his labours after lie had returned to his own coun- 
try and begun to preach the new doctrine of salvation 
by a living faith, with enlarged experience on the sub- 
ject of his own piety, we append a few extracts from 
the Journal of 1739 :— 

" April 8. — At seven in the morning I preached to 
about a thousand persons at Bristol, and afterward to 
about fifteen hundred on the top of Hannom-Mount, in 
Kings wood. I called . . . About five thousand 
were in the afternoon at Rose- Green (on the other side 
of Kingswood)." 

" Tuesday, 10. — I was desired to go to Bath, where I 
offered to about a thousand souls the free grace of God 
to heal their backsliding s, and in the morning to (I be- 
lieve) more than two thousand. I preached to about 
the same number at Baptist-Mills in the afternoon." 

" Saturday, 14. — I preached at the poor-house ; three 
or four hundred were within, and more than twice that 
number without, to whom I explained those comfort- 
able words, ' When they had nothing to pay, he frankly 
forgave them both. 7 " 

" Sunday, 15. — I explained, at seven, to five or six 
thousand persons, the story of the Pharisee and the 
publican. About three thousand were present at Han- 
nom-Mount. I preached at Newgate after dinner to a 
crowded congregation. Between five and six we went 
to Rose- Green: it rained hard at Bristol, but not a 
drop fell on us while I declared to about five thousand. 

. . . I concluded the day by speaking at the so- 
ciety in Baldwin-street." 

" On Easter-day, it being a thorough rain, I could 
only preach at Newgate at eight, A. M., and at two, 
P. M. ; in a house near Hannom-Mount at eleven; and 



252 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

in one near Eose-Green at five. At the society in the 
evening many were cut to the heart, and many com- 
forted." 

"Monday, 23. — On a repeated invitation I went to 
Pensford, about five miles from Bristol. I sent to the 
minister to ask leave to preach in the church ; but hav- 
ing waited some time and received no answer, I called 
on many of the people who were gathered together in 
an open place, If any man thirst let him come unto me 
and drink. At four in the afternoon there were above 
three thousand in a convenient place near the city." 

" I preached at Bath to about a thousand on Tues- 
day morning, and at four P. M. to the poor colliers, at 
a place about the middle of Kingswood. In the even- 
ing, at Baldwin-street, a young man, after a sharp 
(though short) agony, both of body and mind, found 
his soul filled with peace." 

" Sunday, May 13. — My ordinary employment (in 
public) was now as follows : — Every morning I read 
prayers and preached at Newgate. Every evening I 
expounded a portion of the Scripture at one or more 
of the societies. On Monday, in the afternoon, I 
preached abroad near Bristol ; on Tuesday at Bath and 
Two-mile-hill alternately ; on Wednesday at Baptist- 
Mills ; every other Thursday near Pensford ; every 
other Friday in another part of Kingswood ; on Satur- 
day in the afternoon and Sunday morning in the 
Bowling-green ; on Sunday, at eleven, near Hannom- 
Mount, at two at Clifton, and at five on Bose-Green. 
And hitherto as my day is, so my strength hath been" 

And thus this man of God laboured, till, like a sheaf 
of grain ready for the garner, he was gathered to the 
congregation of the saints in light. Exceedingly 



FAITH OF ACTIVE LIFE. 253 

abundant in pious effort, travelling at certain seasons 
of his life five thousand miles a year, preaching the 
gospel to all classes daily, as we may say, and often 
several times a day, as even the very meagre extracts 
here given show, besides more private acts of devotion 
to the cause of his divine Master. And is it asked, 
Where are the fruits of his doings ? We answer, 
everyivhere. From the energy, the zeal, the faith of 
this one man, whose sole aim was to spread Scripture 
holiness in the world, hath sprung up, within a hun- 
dred years, a host of true disciples, many of whom 
have likewise gone to their reward, but numbers of 
whom still live to propagate the same doctrines, and 
are stretching out their lines wherever a ransomed 
soul is to be found. 

In the chaste and forcible language of Bev. Dr. 
Bangs, " Elevating himself far above things of merely 
an indifferent character, despising alike the censures 
of the bigot and the praises of the wise men of the 
world, he broke loose from the cords of prejudice, and 
casting a prophetic- look down the vista of time, he 
saw generations yet unborn, in America, for whom it 
was needful to have provided the bread and water of 
life. He heard the cry of those in this country who 
were destitute of the ordinances of religion. He felt 
the responsibility of his position. . . . Ever in- 
tent upon doing good of every possible sort, as far as 
in him lay, he could not withhold that aid in this 
emergency which he plainly saw he could, both scrip- 
turally and rationally, afford them, for fear of tres- 
passing upon certain ecclesiastical usages, sanctioned 
indeed by custom, but not commanded in the word of 
God." And Methodism, with its searching doctrines 



254 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

and systematic operations, with its unflagging energy 
and deep devotion to the cause of radical piety, hath 
been the result. 

Action has been the watchword of Methodism ever 
since its establishment, as it was that of its founder 
throughout his ministry, and it is only in an atmos- 
phere of unceasing action that faith can have its per- 
fect work. When we cease to labour as a people, we 
shall be shorn of strength, and become as " sounding- 
brass and a tinkling cymbal." Glory will depart 
with the inactivity of her members, perhaps never to 
be again restored. 

Patience would be exhausted were we to give license 
to our pen in adverting to various memorials at com- 
mand in further testimony of the necessity there exists 
for an active state of life in order to develop faith and 
test patience most fully. For there is the domestic 
circle, with its peculiar blessings ; the number made 
happy by attending to the laws of existence in rearing 
up homes for youth and beauty, and guarding them 
from insidious foes. As far as the rich meadows and 
verdant lawns excel in beauty the untenanted wilds 
of the desert, so far the rich scenes associated with 
fire-side and homestead surpass the dulness and 
heartlessness of isolated dreaming. The ring of their 
glad voices seems to bind us to earth ; yet the belief 
that when gone they chant paeans in glory, constitu- 
ting a happy circle, tends still more to endear us to 
heaven ! When departed shall we not strive to see 
them again ? Will faith and hope cease to urge us 
onward toward their rest ? Nay, rather be assured 
that every kind word known to the family circle will 
serve to draw us after its members when gone ; that 



FAITH IN ACTIVE LIFE. 255 

their parting look will be pictured on every drawing 
of memory. 

It is in the midst of such relations of life that faith 
most flourishes, as sympathy can only there be brought 
into full exercise, awakening the purest sentiment. 
Each relation has its peculiar influence ; and the more 
multiplied they are, provided they are rational, the 
better. The wider the field of natural vision, the more 
varied and beautiful the scenery ; so the higher we rise 
in the scale of responsibility, provided it be accurately 
discharged, the happier the tendency. The soul, par- 
taking in some remote degree of the qualities of the 
Infinite Mind, is without a just admeasurement of ca- 
pacity ; and hence there is no end to the progress that 
the human understanding may be expected to make 
hereafter. Therefore, every favouring gale but ad- 
vances the soul's interests, and prudence dictates a 
diligent use of all occasions where the spirit may shake 
off its slumbers, and awake to exalted communion with 
the Deity. 

Whilst regarding the dictates of duty there appears 
to spring up an increase of faith ; whereas indifference 
dampens spiritual ardour, until it is difficult to rise 
into freedom again. The more we do in the name of 
Christ, the more animated will be our faith ; and were 
we to devote proper time and energy to the service of 
God, the fire would burn so glowingly upon the altar 
of the heart, that no moment would arrive when there 
would not be an intimate communion with God. 
Like the seers of old, with an eye keenly sensible of 
spiritual objects, life would be spent in a walk with 
God ; and when death opens the gate to eternity, the 
entrance into glory would be but the easy effort of the 



256 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

same exulting, constant, unbroken faith. The main- 
spring of devotion is a deep sense of right conduct ; 
and, however long the more careless may mourn in 
secret before God in pleading for antepasts of heaven, 
the devotee, conscious of activity and zeal, but lifts 
the eye toward heaven to feel rich streams of consola- 
tion in the soul. In view of these truths, we should 
desire the most active stations, or that sphere of duty 
where all the faculties might be absorbed in an un- 
ceasing round of healthful exercise, keeping the eye 
always fixed on divine things, the heart united to 
Christ, and the soul constantly endued with well-ascer- 
tained effusions of the Holy Spirit. 

The devout, who thus aims at bearing " the heat 
and burden of the day," will not only find time, but 
desire to withdraw from the busy scene and hold sweet 
communion with God in the appointed way of secret 
prayer ; for the toiling soul has been by nature taught 
to sing : — 

" I love to steal awhile away, 

From every cumbering care. 
And spend the hours of setting day 

In humble, grateful prayer. 

" I love in solitude to shed 

The penitential tear, 
And all his promises to plead 

Where none but God can hear. 

" I love by faith to take a view 

Of brighter scenes in heaven ; 
The prospect doth my strength renew, 

While here by te?npests driven. 

" Thus, when life's toilsome day is o'er, 

May its departing ray 
Be calm as this impressive hour, 

And lead to endless day."— Mrs. Brown. 



a 



FAITH OF THE IGNORANT. 257 

CHAPTER VIII. 

FAITH OF THE IGNORANT. 

Compared with the intelligent, the ignorant consti- 
tute a vast majority of mankind. Here and there 
nature has lavished her bounty in the creation of ex- 
traordinary minds, while a still larger number have 
by persevering effort raised from slender foundations 
gigantic superstructures. But the mass of mankind 
possess only ordinary capacity, and all the information 
they acquire is more the result of casual observation 
of passing events than of cultivated thought. Their 
minds resemble the unquarried stone which awaits the 
artist's chisel to bring out its beauties. These are 
the minds that bear the burden and cares of life — 
trusting mainly to physical effort in securing its com- 
forts or necessaries. In the ever-verdant and delight- 
ful verse of the poet Gray : — 

" Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield, 

Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke ; 

How jocund did they drive their team a-field ! 

Howbow'd the woods beneath their sturdy stroke! 

''Let not ambition mock their useful toil, 

Their lonely joys and destiny obscure; 
Nor grandeur hear, with a disdainful smile, 

The short and simple annals of the poor. 

"Nor you, ye proud! impute to these the fault, 
If memory o'er their tomb no trophies raise, 

Where through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault 
The pealing anthem swells the note of praise. 

"Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid 
Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire; 

Hands that the rod of empire might have swayM, 
Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre. 



258 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

" But knowledge to their eyes her ample page, 
Rich with the spoils of time, did ne'er unroll ; 

Chill penury repress ; d their noble rage, 
And froze the genial current of the soul." 

To their sphere they are chained as if by inexorable 
fate ; in it they are born, live, and die. The parent 
bequeaths the legacy received from those who pre- 
ceded him, and the same order of talents, and not un- 
frequently of tastes and habits, are entailed upon his 
successors. The parents, being themselves ignorant, 
are not careful to educate their children ; the haunts 
of vice take the place of the school ; the mind con- 
tracts the taint of sin ; the body suffers in connexion 
with debility of mind, and the early manhood of the 
j^outh of such ancestry finds them a prey to false 
hopes and passions, destined to pass the remainder of 
life in dubious and disconcerted anticipations of hap- 
piness. Old age closes the toilsome scene, and, with 
feeble discernings of the future, the curtain falls upon 
the prospect. 

The mind thus instructed and embarrassed is in- 
capable of nice discriminations between the false and 
true, and often receives evil doctrine as readily as the 
good. Doctrines coming fraught with error, if min- 
gled with traces of superstition peculiar to their early 
associations, impress their understandings with last- 
ing force. And it becomes almost impossible to eradi- 
cate such falsities by the presentation of truth — their 
minds changing the features of every impression re- 
ceived ; and what would be wholesome instruction to 
the sound and intelligent, results in a more enthusi- 
astic sentiment of error. The superstitious can never 
attain that elevation in moral philosophy attainable 



FAITH OF THE IGNORANT. 259 

by untrammelled intellect ; for error imbibed in child- 
hood generally exists till death, and perhaps none 
ever get entirely free of all tincture of superstition 
contracted at that tender period. Many, no doubt, 
can point to the occasion in childhood when some 
noted superstition was ingrafted in their nature, and, 
combined with others twisting themselves like lithe 
serpents about the memory, troubles them still. 

In connexion with other designs and blessino\s of 
the gospel, such as healing the sick, restoring sight, 
raising the dead, it was distinctly announced that it 
should be preached to the poor. For when John had 
heard of the works of Christ, he sent two of his dis- 
ciples and said unto him, " Art thou he that should 
come, or do we look for another? — Jesus answered 
and said unto them, Go and show John again those 
things which ye do hear and see: the blind receive 
their sight, and the lame walk ; the lepers are cleansed, 
and the deaf hear ; the dead are raised up, and the 
poor have the gospel preached to them." Was it their 
pecuniary condition that called for such distinctive 
blessings? Was it that among them the seeds of 
sickness and death were more generally sown than 
among the rich and powerful ? Or was it not rather 
that clouds of thick darkness rested upon their vision, 
making them sad prisoners of destiny that required 
the merciful doctrines of the gospel, and induced the 
benignant Saviour to specify the purpose of his mis- 
sion to be in behalf of the " poor ?" 

Under such influences as the gospel lends, the igno- 
rant are set in the w T ay of virtue, and, if failing to 
comprehend as much of the true spirit of Christianity 
as the intelligent, they learn enough to render their 



260 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

present condition far more happy than it could be 
without such divine succour, and as to the future 
they are immeasurably elevated. " That not only the 
maxims/ 7 says Coleridge, " but the grounds of a pure 
morality, the mere fragments of which the * lofty 
grave tragedians taught in chorus or iambic/ and 
that the sublime truths of the divine unity and attri- 
butes, which a Plato found most hard to learn, and 
deemed it still more difficult to reveal ; that these 
should have become the almost hereditary property 
of childhood and poverty, of the hovel and workshop ; 
that even to the unlettered they sound as common- 
place, is a phenomenon which must withhold all but 
minds of the most vulgar cast from undervaluing the 
services even of the pulpit and the reading-desk." 

It can never be estimated, to what low conditions 
of the understanding the spirit of truth descends, be- 
gins, and matures its creations of beauty ; for, as the 
infant dies and is in the enjoyment of well-defined 
happiness in heaven, so may the older who from imbe- 
cility go scarcely beyond, in point of intelligence, when 
purified by grace, be raised to mansions of rest. Tlie 
gospel, therefore, was not designed for the " wise and 
prudent" exclusively or especially, but "for babes 
and sucklings," for the ignorant — the poor. To all 
who can exercise faith and practice the precepts of re- 
ligion is there hope. And who can tell what mind is 
not lifting its thought toward heaven in communion 
with God ? We meet the poor in our streets and by- 
ways with tattered garments and halting gait, yet 
with the tear in their eye ; and can we say they are 
not seen from above ? Even the poor Indian is not 
without some prospect of bliss : for he 



FAITH OF THE IGNORANT. 261 

" Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind. 
His soul proud science never taught to stray 
Far as the solar walk, or milky way ; 
Yet simple nature to his hope has given, 
Behind the cloud-topped hill, an humbler heaven ; 
Some safer world in depth of woods embraced, 
Some happier island in the watery waste/ 7 

And shall we conclude that the savage hy nature lies 
down in the desolate grave he prepares for himself in 
the valley, and only awakes to misery in eternity ? 
Though so ignorant of the nature of spiritual things 
as the following dialogue serves to show, yet we must 
not deny them a prospect of heaven should they act up 
to the dictates of reason and conscience given to them 
as guides in virtue. While Mr. Wesley was in Sa- 
vannah jive of the Chickasaw Indians came with their 
interpreter to see him. They were all warriors ; four 
of them head men. The two chiefs were Paustobee and 
Mingo Mattam. The conference was as follows : — 

" Question. Do you believe there is One above who 
is over all things ? 

"Answer by Paustobee. We believe there are four 
beloved things above — the clouds, the sun, the clear 
sky, and He that lives in the clear sky. 

" Ques. Do you believe there is but One that lives 
in the clear sky? 

"Ans. We believe there are two with him, three 
in all. 

"Ques. Do you think he made the sun and the 
other beloved things ? 

"Ans. We cannot tell. Who hath seen ? 

"Ques. Do you think he made you? 

"Ans. We think he made all men at first. 

"Ques. How did he make them at first? 



262 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

"Arts. Out of the ground. 

" Ques. Do you believe he loves you ? 

" Arts. I don't know ; I cannot see him. 

"Ques. But has he not often saved your life? 

" Ans. He has. Many bullets have gone on this 
side, and many on that side ; but he would never let 
them hurt me. And many bullets have gone into 
these young men, and yet they are alive. 

" Ques. Then, can't he save you from your enemies 
now? 

"Ans. Yes ; but we know not if he will. We have 
now so many enemies round about us, that I think of 
nothing but death. And if I am to die, I shall die ; 
and I will die like a man. But if he will have me to 
live, I shall live. Though I had ever so many ene- 
mies, he can destroy them all. 

" Ques. How do you know that ? 

"Ans. From what I have seen. When our enemies 
came against us before, then the beloved clouds came 
for us. And after, much rain, and sometimes hail has 
come upon them, and that in a very hot day. And I 
saw, when many French and Choctaws, and other na- 
tions, came against one of our towns. And the ground 
made a noise under them, and the beloved ones in the 
air behind them. And they were afraid, and went 
away, and left their meat and drink, and their guns. 
I tell no lie. All these saw it too. 

" Ques. Have you heard such noises^ at other times? 

"Ans. Yes, often. Before and after almost every 
battle. 

" Ques. Do you often think and talk of the beloved 
ones ? 

"Ans. We think of them always, wherever we are. 



FAITH OF THE IGNORANT. 263 

We talk of them and to them, at home and abroad ; 
in peace, in war, before and after we fight ; and in- 
deed whenever and wherever we meet together. 

" Ques. Where do you think your souls go after 
death ? 

" Arts. We believe the souls of red men walk up and 
down near the place where they died, or where their 
bodies lie. 

" Ques. Where do the souls of white men go after 
death? 

"Ans. We cannot tell. We have not seen. 

" Ques. Our belief is, that the souls of bad men only 
walk up and down ; but the souls of good men go up. 

" Ans. I believe so to. But I told you the talk of 
the nation. 

" Ques. How came your nation by the knowledge 
they have? 

"Am. As soon as ever the ground was found, and fit 
to stand upon, it came to us, and has been with us 
ever since. But we are young men. Our old men 
know more. But all of them do not know. There 
are but a few, whom the Beloved One chooses from a 
child, and is in them, and takes care of them, and 
teaches them. They know these things ; and our old 
men practise ; therefore they know. But I don't 
practise ; therefore I know little." 

There is a hope for all — the red man as the white 
man — the Ethiopian, the Asiatic, and Malay ; and they 
who sit in the shadow of superstition are yet to be 
brought under the mild sway of the gospel of Christ, 
before the consummation of time. That, as the " be- 
ginning was at Jerusalem" in the days of our Saviour, 
so the ending shall be there. That, as the voice of 



264 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

John was heard on the banks of the Jordan, the voice 
of our blessed Saviour along the shores of the Sea of 
Galilee, that of Paul on Mars' Hill, of Luther and 
Zwingle in Germany, of Whitefield and the Wesley s 
in America, — so the heralds of religious freedom shall 
be heard on sea and land, wherever man inhabits, ter- 
minating their glorious career with the conversion of 
the scattered tribes of Israel, and a joyful ingathering 
of them into their fatherland — even in the midst of 
thee, O Jerusalem ! " city of our God." 

But though the poor and ignorant are blessed with 
the aid of the gospel in relieving their condition tem- 
porally, and especially in reference to futurity, yet no 
appliances of truth which can be used in elevating 
their moral condition will secure such agreeable re- 
sults as in cases where faith has a good foundation 
in mental and moral acuteness. The great end of 
science is to discover truth, and those who prosecute 
this search are in the necessary contemplation of the 
wonderful works of God ; they go down into the depths 
but to bring up some rare gem reflecting the wisdom 
of the Creator ; they ascend into the heavens but to 
bring down the amazing evidences of his glory ; the 
microscope reveals innumerable and, without such aid, 
undiscernible animalcules, of air and sea, and a gov- 
ernment instituted for them, to w T hich they pay con- 
stant and ready obedience ; the telescope is pointed 
toward the constellations, and the truth they whisper 
to the astonished gazer is, " that the hand that made 
us is divine," — that they have their appointed seasons 
and their intelligences ; and that far back in the 
regions of undiscoverable space are other worlds that 
range upon the outskirts of systems having for cen- 



FAITH OF THE IGNORANT. 265 

tres a point still nearer the throne of the Eternal. 
The earth, air, and sea are read, and, as a great vol- 
ume unfolding the wisdom and goodness of the Crea- 
tor, serves to tutor the mind into reverence, fear, and 
admiration at such wonderful counsels. To him who 
studies this book, the voice of the muttering thunder 
is not heard to terrify, but as the harbinger of re- 
freshing showers, or the destruction of deadly elements 
in the air. The piercing cold of winter, almost freez- 
ing the springs of life, tells of fertilizing processes in 
the earth ; the heats of the summer solstice, drying 
up the water-springs and blanching to deadness the 
verdure on the arid plains, mature the " corn and 
wine that maketh glad the heart of man." 

" Through nature man looks up to God," and gath- 
ering knowledge from what is seen, as to the unseen, 
the Architect is contemplated as enthroned amid the 
heavens, wisely ruling over all. And from the bless- 
ings continually springing from the arrangements of 
nature in this steady government of the world, there 
is the assurance of Supreme Goodness in addition to 
the other attributes of divinity — preparing the mind 
to honour, revere, and obey such inimitable authority, 
and for assenting to the truths of revelation. 

It is a characteristic of piety to be intimately asso- 
ciated with pure thought and sentiment, and it flour- 
ishes best in the soil of lofty feeling ; whilst impiety 
strikes root deepest where ignorance is slow to clear 
away the coarse and rugged growth of noxious pas- 
sions, perverted tastes, and superstitious fears — there 
reaping her richest harvests. 

What encouragement to youth just conning his first 
lesson ! As light enters, darkness departs. Every 

12 



266 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

thought exercised in connexion with rectitude will 
produce, in combination, its hundreds of allies, and in 
a few years marshal its hosts in favour of truth. And 
although the impure thought contracted will hang 
like scouts along the outposts of the inner life, even 
down to the grave, yet he who begins in the resolute 
search after happiness will, by continuing steadfast, 
find no disappointment. 

What encouragement to the student toiling in the 
dreary way towards the temple of fame ! Each morn- 
ing that breaks upon his journey will give freshness 
to the mind as well as body, — every sun that sets 
upon his industrious effort will go down over the 
burial-place of some foe to happiness. 

What encouragement to the sage just reaching 
forth to seize the prize of wisdom's race ! The fal- 
tering step tells of a long and wearisome journey, 
but the fire glowing in the eye is proof of intense 
delight. 

" Know thyself," was the inscriptive warning upon 
the gate of the heathen temple, and it is not less the 
teaching of Christianity. Know the depths of thy 
thought, the emotions of thy soul, the leadings of thy 
genius. Nor less the dark side of the picture : the 
force of thy passions, the tempers of thy mind, and 
the evil disposition of thy most secret foes. Know 
thy destiny — the beginning and end of life, with the 
grand result in eternity. Know the appliances of 
grace so as to shape the unseemly traits of thy char- 
acter — the time to use them, the manner of their use. 
Know the two worlds within thee ; live in them both, 
yet at peace with thyself. Know the progress thou 
art making as a traveller in the way of life; and 



FAITH OF THE IGNORANT. 267 

mark the time when thou canst say, " Open to me the 
gates of righteousness, and I will enter in." 

The higher the grade of intelligence in the Chris- 
tian in this life, the nobler will he the elevation in 
the spiritual state, provided the spiritual culture has 
kept pace with it. If the moral part has not been 
proportionably schooled, the feeblest Christian who 
has stored the inner man with the superior graces of 
the Spirit will take the higher place in the future 
state. Merely mental acquirements, however ma- 
tured, are left behind at the portals of the tomb. 
" The thoughts of the wise perish ; in that day he 
dieth do his thoughts perish from the earth." 

Worldly wisdom cannot enter heaven, and hence, 
unmixed with piety, can result in no real good to the 
possessor. But mingled with spiritual improvement, 
truth living, wisdom liveth also. It is then placed 
to the account of virtuous intelligence ; but, separated 
from truth, it only adds to the severity of the punish- 
ment inflicted upon those who have been wise, " but 
not unto salvation." 

The inferiority of the ignorant in matters of faith, 
as compared with the intelligent, is perhaps more 
clearly discernible in the case of nations made up of 
individuals of the one class and the other. For in 
such instances are beheld the evils of ignorance on a 
larger scale, or the elevation given through the influ- 
ence of clear and unprejudiced thought. It may do 
for a man to proceed awhile in his career without an 
intelligent basis of faith ; but when the storms of error 
assail, the chances are in favour of his infatuation. 
So with nations : in their youth, with thrift and abun- 
dance, with peace in their borders, with craft and 



268 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

cunning laying their snares, they may give much 
promise of renown ; but when at last the tempter 
comes and links the superstitions of folly with the 
zeal of Christianity, by pious exactions impoverishes 
the worshipper, beggaring innocence even in the 
spring-time of life, and sending the gray-haired with 
sorrow to the grave; amusing the fancy whilst eating 
the vitality of the soul ; drying up the fountains of 
tears with caresses while striking death-blows at the 
hopes and prospects of the victims of sorrow, until the 
whole land becomes a scene of poverty, wretchedness, 
and ruin : then it is that faith, laid on sandy founda- 
tions, gives way, and help must be looked for in truer 
sources of wisdom. 

In the midst of intelligence and Christian enter- 
prise, even a weak-minded believer may stand firm in 
his faith ; but when the whole nation, steeped in igno- 
rance, languishes for want of energy — standing the 
ghost of martyred greatness — the zealous, the devoted 
adherent of what was once real faith, is too often 
borne away in the dreadful calamity. 

The restoration of such nations — of which it is to 
be feared many now exist, and so clearly marked as 
not to require mentioning by name — will never be 
the result of casualty ; but as the mind of the low 
and besotted is restored to true greatness by influ- 
ences from within and without — influences presup- 
posing individual effort and extraneous aid — so must 
they rise again from degradation. It will not answer 
to build upon the old foundations, already crumbling 
to dust; but the elements of society must be reorgan- 
ized, and the garniture of false and fatal systems be 
torn away. The nation must breathe free. Pure and 



FAITH OF THE IGNORANT. 269 

living fountains of truth must be opened at the centre, 
and good seed of divine origin carefully sown in all 
her borders. If all this fail, she must give place to 
those who are aliens and strangers on her soil, and 
let her orbit in the social system be occupied by such 
as honour the all-wise Founder: "For he putteth 
down one and setteth up another." 

Take away superstition from the mind, and while 
genuine systems of religion would stand out more 
prominently to the observer, it would displace the last 
and main prop of such as are false, teaching very con- 
clusively the worth of intelligence in maintaining any 
degree of virtue. Ignorance is the avenue by which 
error first seeks to enter the mind ; and in proportion 
as ignorance prevails in a nation will be the great 
landmarks of superstitious idolatry — a religion hav- 
ing no place either in the head or heart, but dictated 
at the caprice of false guidance. Those nations that 
are now doing most in fulfilling a high destiny — in 
pouring light into the darker corners of the earth by 
precept and example, by providing instruction for the 
benighted — are such as lay claim to the highest cul- 
tivation of mental and moral philosophy, and feel 
most acutely the benefits of intelligence to those they 
are endeavouring to assist. The blow is aimed at 
superstition and folly ; and until it is felt, but little 
hope of bettering their condition can be realized. From 
all experience on this subject it is to be inferred that 
as intelligence is requisite in advancing any true 
interest, so faith is greatly aided in its higher de- 
velopments by the same means. 



270 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 



CHAPTEE IX. 

FAITH OF THE YOUNG. 

The period of accountability in the young is one of 
great importance, as they may be said then to enter 
upon life. They are in the world before, but merely 
at the threshold, awaiting admittance to its responsi- 
bilities. Upon them now rises a light which always 
remains fixed in their mind. This is the light of con- 
science, indicating that the time of life has arrived 
when the " books are opened" in which to record 
their actions ; that the time has arrived when the 
moral machinery is set in motion ; the time when 
the eye is to note both the inner and outer man ; 
when sin may be committed, and therefore when faith 
may be exercised for its pardon. 

But though this admission to the responsibilities of 
life is a period in the history of youth, yet it does not 
follow that it opens upon them in a moment, like sun- 
light breaking from a cloud, but is rather like the 
opening of the flower — the bud first showing itself, 
then the fuller manifestations of beauty. In infancy 
signs of thought are visible; and while but a prattler 
on the knee, the child shows evidences of a germinat- 
ing moral organization in obeying or disobeying pa- 
rental command. Circumstance after circumstance 
fashions the habits, biased or directed by an under- 
current of native energy, until the spring-time of ex- 
istence opens, and with it the petals of the mind. 
Indistinct reveries, vague and immature thought 
gradually give place to scenes verging upon realities ; 



FAITH OF THE YOUNG. 271 

and as when the mists clear away and reveal the sky, 
so their conceptions of truth grow upon them into ripe 
accountability. To the view now stand forth right 
and wrong as personated ideas. Wherever they go, 
whether in company or alone, in every place they see 
this patron saint and evil genius always at their side. 
Nor does the parent watch over the movements of her 
offspring more closely than do the geniuses of good and 
evil observe their moral exercises. 

Hence, though true that the young have their time 
of entrance into a state of accountability, — a moment 
when their relations towards God and man are sud- 
denly changed, — still it is but as the sun rising above 
the horizon after the heavens have been for a season 
garnished with precursors of his advent. Are the 
young then to be amenable to the law of God graven 
on their heart ? Like those who are older, must they 
be weighed in the balance and " rewarded according 
to the deeds done in the body ?" Or, shall they vio- 
late their obligations with impunity ? According to 
the light given will be the demand for obedience, and 
they must answer for the abuse of reason and privi- 
lege. There must be a period at which the results of 
the experience of childhood are so applied to the com- 
prehension of the present as to require the youthful 
reasoner to perceive and meet his obligations ; for be- 
ing capable of interfering with the happiness of others 
they might receive injury without redress in a moral 
point of view, and the case be presented of wilful dis- 
obedience without punishment inflicted upon its sub- 
ject. Therefore, setting before the mind of youth 
both good and evil, God requires a proper regard for 
their observance ; and from the moment they are pre- 



272 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

sen ted as a matter of choice, so early shall the Son 
of Man sit in judgment upon their conduct. If they 
die before this period, they are but "little children," 
and have no account to render. The atonement covers 
all ancestral defilement, and their spirits, like trem- 
bling stars seen far in the expanse of heaven, reflect 
in paradise some ray of light. 

When the line of accountability is passed the scene 
changes, and, dying at such a period, having violated 
the obligations of duty, they cannot without faith and 
repentance enter into the kingdom of heaven. Hence, 
it may be considered as an interesting question — at 
what age does this responsibility begin ? But as it 
altogether depends on the light of reason and con- 
science when the period arrives, and as this varies in 
every mind according to circumstances of natural and 
improved intelligence, no one can point to the precise 
moment when the developments are all complete, and 
" the Spirit and the Bride say, Come." It is perhaps 
known only to God and the subjects of his grace. They 
realize the moment when the commandments are en- 
graved on the " tablets of stone," erected in their 
hearts ; and though the light be too dim to reveal all 
the inscription, they see the outlines of duty. As 
years pass on, the sense and meaning of all grows 
clearer, until the " whole duty of man" is understood. 
Some children mature quickly, and are as far ad- 
vanced in discretion at six as others at twelve ; and, 
as accountability is based upon the developments of 
reason, some are capable of sinning long before others. 
Parents may be able to judge closely as to the exact 
time of their children's entering upon their responsi- 
bility, but only by external signs of conduct — as a 



FAITH OF THE YOUNG. 273 

tree is known by the fruit it bears, to be either good 
or bad. There are instances of conversion recorded 
at the very early age of four ; but though such things 
are possible, we apprehend that a much later age is 
usually required for that growth of the faculties 
necessary for a genuine work of divine grace. Mr. 
Wesley observes, " I believe till I was about ten years 
old I had not sinned away that washing of the Holy 
Ghost which was given me in baptism, having been 
strictly educated and carefully taught that I could 
only be saved by universal obedience, by keeping all 
the commandments of God, in the meaning of which 
I was diligently instructed. And those instructions, 
so far as they respected outward duties and sins, I 
gladly received and often thought of. But all that was 
said to me of inward obedience or holiness I neither 
understood nor remembered. So that I was indeed as 
ignorant of the true meaning of the law as I was of 
the gospel of Christ. The next six or seven years 
were spent at school ; where, outward restraints being 
removed, I was much more negligent than before, 
even of outward duties, and almost continually guilty 
of outward sins, which I knew to be such, though they 
were not scandalous in the eye of the world." And it is 
related of President Edwards that he was under strong 
religious influence at the age of twelve or thirteen; but 
his advancement in learning was extrordinary, and it 
is probable he had received more pious instruction at 
that age than any youth of his day. Whatever the 
period may be at which the mind can grasp moral 
truths and apply them to the conduct, it is certain that 
the earlier religious instruction is given, the better 
for the child ; it becoming a question of the manner 

12* 



274 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

of imparting it rather than as to the policy of so doing. 
The instruction of youth in religious knowledge is a 
subject of serious thought, and erroneous methods 
may produce almost as great evils as entire neglect. 
The material upon which to work must be duly con- 
sidered ; and there must be an adaptation of the means 
to the end proposed, or else the moral growth may be 
repressed or sadly perverted. The religious feelings 
can be no more hastened in their progress by undue 
stimulants than can the mere exercises of the mind. 
For, as excess in the one case will destroy the healthy 
tone of sentiment, so in the other will it pervert ge- 
nius and bring on premature decay. 

The entrance of youth upon life is more a period 
of fancy than reason. The mind is a delicate faculty, 
and readily reflects the images impressing it. There 
is a mild sunshine thrown around it, and the objects 
presented assume in this hazy atmosphere a magni- 
tude disproportioned to their real importance : vision 
after vision passes, dream after dream, the scene ever 
varying and presenting nothing in its exact linea- 
ments twice. Tender as the most delicate plant, the 
little soul weeps at the appearance of w r oe, and, like a 
flower, is all freshness again. Realities are looked 
upon as dreams, for the fancy associates pleasure with 
everything. It is the period of imagination — not 
that vigorous fancy which belongs to the riper mind, 
taking in the outlines of both worlds at a glance, and 
revelling in the intoxication — but a fancy gilding 
everything within its reach, that makes its world in 
the circle of its movements and associations, and only 
fondles with the objects of thought. If evil comes 
clothed in rich drapery, it presents the appearance of 



FAITH OF THE YOUNG. 275 

truth. Set off with high colourings, error is eagerly 
embraced. The fruit that looks ruddiest is soonest 
gathered ; the flower that hangs nearest and blossoms 
fairest is the one longed for, and the sharp prickings 
of the thorn scarce warn of danger. Thus minded, 
the voice of conscience pleads with hearts, and the dic- 
tates of parental care point their thought to heaven. 
The prayer of the pious mother upon their retirement 
is subdued or silent, but they know the burden of the 
plea. They see her return from her place of sacred 
retirement with a tearful eye, and understand the 
cause. She has thought of them, prayed for them ; 
they have been dedicated in her solemn communings 
to God who gave them. 

It is upon such minds the light from above falls in 
the earlier periods of youth — minds easily impressed 
and hearts yielding to the tenderest impulses. With 
vague comprehensions of real life, they perceive but 
partially the nature and design of spiritual things. 
There is an unasked but ever present inquiry as to 
what is the world into which they have entered. What 
means the ever-present genius of good and evil? what 
the silent, unseen, but not unfelt monitor in the breast, 
raising aloft the sword of vengeance when the heart 
yearns for the ways of sin, and smiling complacently 
when some benevolent act is performed or some temp- 
tation resisted ? What meaneth this outer and inner 
world — the one without seen in its complexities of 
action, the one within felt in its unceasing changes ? 
Is there no escape from either, or no separation of 
them ? Must no time arrive when choice shall be the 
only rule of guidance, and there be no parental voice 
to chide without, none to chide within? And with 



276 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH, 

secret inquiries unresolved, the young go on in their 
career, setting the period of freedom when they shall 
have entered manhood. It is then, at furthest, they 
will act as inclination may direct, with no draw-hack 
upon their pleasures. With thought so immature, a 
nature so sensitive, a heart so disposed to evil, a fancy 
so replete with tints, how should the system of religion 
assume its form and feature so as best to attract at- 
tention and become the subject of serious and useful 
consideration ? Shall it be stripped of all its associa- 
tions in connexion with the natural course of youthful 
reflection, and appear only as an unvarnished truth ; or 
shall it be arrayed in the fairest colourings fancy 
can lend — exciting the imagination while it warms 
the heart ? Shall God be viewed as a being of terror 
and vengeance alone, or shall the thought inter- 
mingle with his character of justice the attributes 
of gentleness and mercy? Shall heaven be repre- 
sented as a place surrounded by barren walls and 
filled with sedate worshippers ; or with gates of gold, 
streets paved with precious stones, and angels harp- 
ing their praises ? Even with the aged there is much 
imagination mixed with their prospects of heaven, 
and how can the young divest their thought of still 
greater colouring when contemplating celestial ob- 
jects? The old love to watch the setting sun and 
think of the country beyond, or to ponder the scenes 
of returning spring with its green pastures and song, 
and think of the spring-time of eternal youth. We 
read of those who, at the hour of their departure, 
have desired to be placed at the window of their 
chamber, that they might behold the sun sink to rest 
amid the effulgent heavens, and warm their dull 



FAITH OF THE YOUNG. 277 

fancy by his light, and often do they sing of the 
glories of that better land in such pious strains as 
these : — 

" On Jordan's stormy banks I stand, 

And cast a wishful eye 
To Canaan's fair and happy land, 

Where my possessions lie. 

" the transporting, rapturous scene, 

That rises to my sight ! 
Sweet fields array 1 d in living green, 

And rivers of delight, 

" There generous fruits, that never fail, 

On trees immortal grow ; 
There rock, and hill, and brook, and vale, 

With milk and honey flow. 77 

Or at other times after this manner: — 

" Lift your eyes of faith, and see 

Saints and angels joined in one; 
What a Countless company 

Stand before yon dazzling throne ! 

" Each before his Saviour stands, 

All in whitest robes array'd; 
Palms they carry in their hands, 

Croivns of glory on their head." 

If the more advanced in years are thus wont to re- 
fresh their fainting souls with the bright pictures of 
fancy, how appropriately do we hear in our Sabbath- 
schools the simple rendering of the like thought: 

" There is a happy land, 

Far, far away, — 
Where saints in glory stand, 

Bright, bright as day : 
how they sweetly sing, — 
Worthy is our Saviour. King; 
Loud let his praises ring 

Forever more l n 



278 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

Very simple means often secure to the minds of the 
young impressions more lasting and useful than the 
most laborious effort at argument in philosophizing. 
Attention gained, the simple instruction descends like 
gentle dew upon the flower, watering and refreshing 
it ; and the soul, as if silently drooping under the 
pressure, quickly awakens to other scenes enacting 
around it — but not without sweet remembrance of its 
exercises. Like the delicate plate under the lens of 
the daguerreo typist, if but a moment's attention can 
be obtained from the tender mind, however simple the 
story that attracts, it arouses to other objects ; but the 
impression is made, and can only be marred by time. 
Well do we remember the summer afternoon, many 
years ago, when for the first time our thought followed 
the sonorous recitals of the little class consisting, we 
believe, of two sisters and a brother, while passing 
through the history of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus ; nor 
will age ever wear the impression away. The school- 
house was in a retired part of the country, with culti- 
vated fields on one side and extensive woods on the 
other. It was a quiet scene — no sounds but the hum 
of insects without, and the suppressed whisper within, 
and the voice of the youthful readers, as they slowly 
and with much cadence read in turn the narrative. 
There was no art or device used — it was the simple 
vein of the story, so strange and yet so natural ; so 
plain yet so pathetic ; so full of light, sentiment, and 
truth, that the thought was checked in its pursuits 
or wanderings, and occupied — lost in abstraction. 
Though never having heard of Palestine and its hal- 
lowed localities, yet ihe imagination could locate the 
scene of the grave of Lazarus, and the home of the 



FAITH OF THE YOUNG. 279 

sisters— could see the one sister as she went there to 
weep, the solemn assembly at the " place where they 
had laid him," and the benignant form of the Saviour 
as he bade him " come forth." 

It is the simplicity of the manner of instructing 
the young that effects the great results. Better pre- 
sent a few striking instances of God's wisdom and 
goodness to them, than dilate on the commandments 
or caution against future evils. Better in the Sab- 
bath school let the entire assemblage wait, in vacancy 
of thought, for only a single suggestion that shall 
take hold of every mind with force and lasting effect, 
than descant in the most earnest and pathetic manner 
upon subjects so foreign to their mental exercises at 
the time, or so abstractly considered as to attract but 
little attention. Fix the attention, and then, before 
broken off, enstamp truth in some shape or other, and, 
as the die retains its impression, the trace will have 
been felt on the mind. 

Fancy is always rich in its drawings, and much of 
the pleasure even of religious life consists in blending 
the nightshade with the rose — sunlight with gloom- 
beauty with sternest truth. It constitutes no part of 
religion; for that lies deeper, and is enjoyed as a re- 
past of the soul ; but it tends to enliven the flame of 
devotion and exalt the nature. The prophets were 
accustomed to draw largely upon their imaginations 
for the figures of speech used in prophecy. Isaac was 
inclined to meditate in the open fields at eventide, so 
that under the inspiration of the summer sky, and 
the repose of nature calming his feelings, and lifting 
his thoughts towards heaven, he might approach 
nearer the divine presence. David loved to strike his 



280 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

" harp of solemn sound," and while the music died 
faintly on the ear, to follow in the track it had left, 
and in the way it had wandered far off — sending out 
his soul to God. The Saviour often retired to the 
silent retreats about Jerusalem to meditate on the 
joys of the invisible w r orld, and become imbued with 
more of the divine Spirit, so to speak. God spake from 
the holy mount with lightnings and thunderings to the 
astonished Israelites, declaring his power with all the 
accompaniments of grandeur the earth could endure. 
The ideal will still remain, though the mind be- 
comes imbued with piety. Thus constituted, devotion 
does not destroy the imagination of youth, but shapes 
and moulds it into safer forms ; and when the love of 
God is prominent in the heart, let fancy be free. Let 
them people the spirit-land with such images as they 
deem most lovely ; let them listen to the strains of 
their agolian harps, and fancy it the music of the 
spheres ; let them plant flowers upon the graves of 
playmates, and imagine it to be a religious ceremony. 
Meddle not with such yearnings for the beautiful, 
manifesting itself through these evidences of senti- 
ment and feeling. With a lively, exulting spirit, let 
their thought rise to regions unseen, and brighten their 
pathway. Shall this injuriously affect their piety or 
zeal ? or can they have any system without a mixture 
of sentiment? It is the season with them of fancy, and 
how shall they displace it with sober realities? It is a 
component part of their existence, and how shall any 
thought, any hope exist without connexion with it? It 
colours the true picture as well as the false ; and while 
evil throws its glitter around the objects of its attach- 
ments, virtue can likewise clothe itself as richly. 



FAITH OF THE YOUNG. 281 

We are enabled to learn from the adult the mode 
of the Spirit's operations, and to reduce these to a sys- 
tem in passing from " nature's darkness to the mar- 
vellous light of the gospel/' But from the young we 
can gain but indefinite knowledge of such exercises, 
and their minds to the mere observer remain an un- 
read history as to the more secret operations of the 
grace of God. They are too inexperienced to divulge 
fully the mode of .their conversion; and when in after- 
life they are better able to understand and communi- 
cate the process of regeneration as based upon the 
principles of reason and truth, their early exercises 
are so indistinct in recollection that they can only 
catch glimpses of the more prominent influences 
brought to bear upon them, and their deeper emo- 
tions while undergoing the change from nature to 
grace. We are therefore compelled, in these cases, to 
reason from analogy, and draw the conclusion that all 
exercises in the work of regeneration are similar; and 
that the devotions of youth, in entering upon their 
probationary state, present a striking resemblance to 
those of the more advanced in years ; and while the 
fancy of the former class plays a more important part 
in the excitement thrown around the mind than in 
the latter, the exercises of religion are as naturally 
carried on in the one case as the other — the brighter 
fancy of youth being as necessary for their existence 
as are the reason and sobriety of the old for theirs. 

The young do not, perhaps we should say cannot, 
comprehend the deeper things of God, the whole proc- 
ess of their purification of spirit ; still they know the 
beginning and the end of its history, the main part 
of their exercises. They may not be able to compre- 



282 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

hend the nature of faith so fully as the aged, yet they 
can feel themselves to be sinners, and when converted, 
feel themselves to be reconciled to God. The Spirit 
helpeth the infirmities of all, both old and young; and 
what the latter need in wisdom and experience, the 
grace of God can dispense as required. For their 
purposes, the faith that they can exercise is all- 
sufficient — otherwise a case would be presented in 
which sin could be committed and no means exist of 
obtaining pardon : that while the child only approach- 
ing his accountability may be saved by the efficacy of 
the atonement, ex necessitate, as it may be not improp- 
erly termed ; and while the aged, though steeped in wick- 
edness, may find mercy, the young, just merging into 
the light of spiritual existence, can find no escape from 
the few offendings of which they are guilty. It should 
therefore be concluded that a remedy exists for every 
evil; and though the operations of the mind of the 
young, when under the influence of the Spirit, differ 
slightly from those of persons of riper years, never- 
theless the view obtained of the nature of sin — of the 
spiritual life — of the Saviour as a mediator — the com- 
munion secured with the Holy Ghost — results as much 
in their happiness as the more comprehensible, and bet- 
ter comprehended, exercises of the adult effect for him. 

Eeligion with youth, therefore, is a reality though 
mingled with a bright imagination ; with the old it 
is a reality mixed with soberer fancy, and usually 
more lasting in its effects. 

There is another point of view in which this sub- 
ject ought to be examined, and that is the position 
which youth occupy in relation to the period of their 
accountability — the subject admitting of a singular 



FAITH OF THE YOUNG. 283 

variety of queries in connexion with the plan of re- 
demption. To those giving this matter only a pass- 
ing notice, these may, to some extent, appear new and 
interesting. 

1. Were youth to enter upon the state of accounta- 
bility, and afterwards commit no sin by violating any 
commandment, would it be necessary to exercise faith 
ill connexion with the natural blemish occasioned by 
the sin of Adam, or would the " old Adain" be dead 
in them and the new life arise with only the faith and 
obedience of after life? 

2. If it be possible for man from youth onward till 
death in maturer years to live without guilt, what 
reason or use would there be for faith in the atone- 
ment, or of repentance, for what may not have been 
done by him ? 

3. If regeneration is necessary at the moment of 
accountability, on account of the natural pollution of 
the moral creation, there being the committal of no 
new offence, by what influence is the soul of the still 
younger — of such as have not yet attained the admit- 
tance into probationary life — purified for heaven in 
case of death ? 

4. If faith and repentance are inseparable, and re- 
pentance only relates to something that is past, how 
can the mind upon entering probation exercise the one 
without the other? 

5. Can saving faith be separated from repentance ? 

6. Cannot the purifying grace that fits the child 
for heaven, also stand good for the rest of life, pro- 
vided no actual sin be committed, and save the oldest 
maintaining this position upon the principle of an 
atonement for original sin ? 



284 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

Perhaps there are other aspects not now occurring 
to the mind in which to view the subject, but an an- 
swer to the inquiries submitted would cover the whole 
of the ground that could be taken by a querist or ob- 
jector to the plan of salvation. To eliminate, the whole 
of the above points may be considered as reduced to 
two, which assume the following shape, namely : — 

1. If there be no actual sin or transgression by 
youth after passing the period of accountability, will 
the general atonement for original sin save them at 
any moment afterward ? 

2. If not, they must be saved by faith and obedi- 
ence; but if so, there is no necessity for it. 

Always admitting that the general atonement will 
prove efficacious in the case of all who are without the 
limits of infantile accountability, and have not begun 
a responsible state of being, it must also be allowed 
that upon entering this state, the fact of their so do- 
ing being indicative of, and dependent upon, the ap- 
prehended relations commenced between God and their 
soul, the conviction that the heart by nature is cor- 
rupt, must be followed by the application of faith in 
Christ for salvation, and that act procures regenera- 
tion. Advancing further and contracting guilt, this 
faith becomes two-fold in its effects, viz.: it operates 
so as to bring pardon for the guilt, and also the re- 
generation of the nature. Before, having no actual 
sin from which to be absolved, purification only re- 
sulted from the faith which can and must be used by 
the subject, as looking to a belief in the foulness semi- 
nal ly imparted to all. If such faith is not at once 
exercised, the omission itself becomes disobedience, and 
both faith and repentance must then be resorted to 



FAITH OF THE YOUNG. 285 

for salvation. This species of trust and reliance upon 
the merits of Christ complies with the terms of the 
gospel ; and, being all the mind can do, nothing 
more is required. The character of the gospel is sus- 
tained in saving all " by grace through faith. " 

This faith, therefore, becomes the earliest duty of 
responsible life, disobedience resulting from even a 
neglect of it, as being the first opportunity of guilt 
and repentance relating to every act from the begin- 
ning of the catalogue of transgression till its close. 

The simplest element of salvation therefore is faith, 
as it commences the history of probation, while at the 
same time it is the most general and diffusive princi- 
ple known. With its use the young are to begin their 
safe career, and through their experience till death 
does it link itself with every act. By it they begin 
without sinning, and may end without doing so. By 
it their impure nature, as if committed for the first 
time to their cognizance and keeping, if we may so 
express it, is relieved of defilement, which would 
otherwise be an active element of evil within them, 
and not a latent one ; and a nature which only a mo- 
ment before must have been saved by the unappre- 
hended grace of Christ, is now capable of being saved 
by it as known. As early as the exercise of faith can 
take place it must be exercised ; and it would seem that 
at the instant of accountability, which is both fixed 
by the ability to do so and the necessity for it, the 
period is reached for this important duty. 



286 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

CHAPTER X. 

FAITH IN PROSPERITY. 

Had it been the best condition, prosperity might nev- 
ertheless not have fallen to the lot of man to the ex- 
clusion of adversity, inasmuch as by the fall of Adam 
the beautiful arrangements of divine economy were 
measurably altered ; and the peace which might have 
been the portion of his descendants forever, was to be 
henceforth mixed with discord and trouble. With 
the transgression man was ushered into a new state 
of things ; and though the earth and its living crea- 
tures were to remain, yet it was with such degen- 
eracy of nature as rendered it necessary for God to 
declare there should be in the course of his purposes 
" a new heaven and a new earth." With its brighter 
glories faded by the touch of sin was the earth to be 
renewed again, and the objects everywhere meeting 
the eye, though so lovely in their present garb, should 
have their former lustre and qualities restored, or be 
replaced by an entirely new creation after the total 
destruction of this. As a concomitant, then, of the 
fall, came multiplied woes to the sons of men ; and 
among them may be numbered the adversities of life. 
Prosperity and peace as formerly existing with Adam 
were gone, and a condition of existence ensued, which, 
though deserving the name of adversity because of its 
actual ills, yet was graded into such heights and depths 
of misery as to make it proper or necessary to affix a 
term of designation to the comparative or relative de- 
grees of the evil. And hence such modes of being 



FAITH IN PROSPERITY. 287 

as were more preferable assumed the title of prosper- 
ous, while those of greater admixture of evil took the 
name of adversities. The whole of the circumstances 
of the degenerate world w r ere by necessity disordered 
to some extent in its loss of purity, and there could 
be no such thing as perfection remaining either in 
man or nature. At first these were both perfect, but 
both alike lost their earlier state, and the wonderful 
change that bad come over all things required a new- 
nomenclature for its perplexing relations. The bad 
had now entered into everything visible ; like the 
good formerly, it now itself became a real element in 
the constitution of things, and existed in connexion 
with every particle of matter that could be affected 
by the curse. So even happiness became a compara- 
tive blessing, and though in itself the best condition 
of natural being, became only secondary in view of 
the blessedness beyond the grave, or even of that 
state of man antecedent to the fall. 

To all those conditions of being least mixed with 
evil was, therefore, attached the title of prosperity, 
leaving the remainder to be denominated adversities. 
Among the divisions of this state we may name the 
three elements of happiness, Health, Plenty, and 
Peace, which may serve to include all the higher 
grades of the mixed blessings of life. Not, as was 
before remarked, that either of these constituents of 
earthly good, or all of them together, are able to 
afford full felicity, but that in them is to be found 
the widest range of enjoyment known to the natural 
state. It will be our purpose, in the present inquiry, 
to notice the excellence of each of these conditions as 
appertaining to temporal happiness, and their influ- 



288 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH, 

ence upon the heart in respect to spiritual things, as 
the appropriation of titles to these qualities of being 
was made in view of their referring to temporal as 
well as spiritual things, to time as well as to eternity. 
But in them there is not so much virtue as alone to 
form the desirable state of worldly or spiritual joy, 
and hence living in the use of them all one may find 
himself far from the contentment the mind longs for, 
or the comfort the spirit seeks. Though the most 
favourable condition of life — for it is the condition 
that gives name to the terms — yet it is not so favour- 
able as to insure happiness or prevent misery. 

Health is ever considered a blessing from heaven, 
as affording the best opportunity of doing good to 
others, of receiving good from the greatest variety of 
sources, and as being freest from bodily suffering. 
With strength of form, the mind usually continues 
strongest, and with both in a healthy state, what can- 
not man accomplish ? He goes forth in the morning 
to breathe the pure air, exults in the active duties of 
life, returns at evening to the blessings of domestic 
tranquillity, offering up his nightly sacrifice of prayer 
and thanksgiving, and sleeps with the soundness of 
innocence. Or if he turns his mind instead of body 
to labour, he triumphs over the secrets of science and 
art, and by intense application frames to himself and 
for the world systems of economy and ethics, regulat- 
ing the conduct of nations and men. With this bless- 
ing he is able to answer the claims of humanity upon 
him, and fills up the measure of his existence more 
largely than he could do were he otherwise circum- 
stanced. And yet the very exuberance of feeling 
which this state begets oftentimes urges on towards 



FAITH IN PROSPERITY. 289 

excesses, and the good is unfortunately changed into 
evil. With energies so vigorous, the body is hurried 
into scenes of danger, or the mind excited to indul- 
gence in vice until the strength of both becomes 
weakened or entirely lost. The mind being strength- 
ened most in such a state, and the means of useful- 
ness extended, it is not unnatural that the exercises 
of the former, in connexion with the divine Spirit, 
should be most happy and beneficial. With circum- 
stances calculated to inspire hope and activity, the 
grace of God might be expected to furnish its best 
helps to the soul, and the progress made be more use- 
ful and extended than under a reverse of fortune. 
But how often do we find the grace so vouchsafed be- 
stowed in vain, and, like Jeshurun, when everything 
promised fair, and the mind was elated with its suc- 
cesses, men have revolted against the authority over 
them. How many lamentable instances are there re- 
corded in the Bible of such forgetfulness of the mer- 
cies of God, and where punishment had to be inflicted 
in order to retrieve the ruin or to vindicate his jus- 
tice ? The strength of Goliath cost him his life in pre- 
suming to fight against the youthful David. Samson, 
as a virtuous Nazarite, might have awed the treach- 
erous Philistines, and brought honour to the cause of 
justice and truth; but changing its legitimate uses, or 
forgetting his earthly calling, he was shorn of his 
unparalleled strength, and became a victim to folly. 
Whilst in health there is more opportunity of doing 
good and improving the moral being, yet the disposi- 
tion to make greater efforts also leads to the greater 
dangers of excess ; and as the means of doing good 
are increased, they are met with increased facilities 

13 



290 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

for doing wrong. So unguarded men fall into error ; 
and a state in which faith may be strongest in well- 
regulated minds, may become one of very serious 
temptation and sin. But still the possibility of a state 
being the ruin of a man when improperly used, does 
not prevent a peculiar blessing being pronounced upon 
it, as being most susceptible of good. And it is great 
mercy in God to use the negative state of misery when 
men have fallen therein, to lead them out into the 
position they have lost. By reacting on the mind the 
soul is restrained from further evil, and the greater 
praise is given to God upon a restoration. 

Abundance, or plenty, as implying a sufficiency of 
the means of sustaining life most consistently with the 
well-directed wishes of man, is a gift of God, and one 
that calls for proper praise. With such blessings the 
field of enjoyment is enlarged, and whilst the mind is 
rendered easy in its reflections upon its future prospects, 
the way is at the same time opened for the exercise 
of one of the most interesting feelings of human na- 
ture. With abundant treasure, and an open hand to 
bestow it upon the needy, is realized a condition of 
life most responsible and happy. As a steward of the 
Lord, man metes out to the poor their supplies in due 
season, and while they receive his benefits he hears 
their benedictions with sacred joy. By means of his 
abundance he is enabled to store his home with choice 
works of literature and science ; and having an appe- 
tite for learning, rendered keen from contact with 
educated minds, rich scenes open to his view, and as 
he advances in knowledge the higher is the standard 
of his enjoyment. Donations to charitable purposes, 
as being important in the progress of the world in 



FAITH IN PROSPERITY. 291 

wisdom and happiness, enlarge proportionally his 
peace. Temples for the service of God are reared 
through his munificence, and by means of his care 
the praise of the Eedeemer is heard in solitary places, 
gladdening the hearts of numberless worshippers. The 
youth of the land are also educated by his bounty, in 
providing instruction and encouraging them in the 
search after knowledge. Minds that for want of such 
aid might be lost to the world, in any effort for its 
true advancement, are brought out from their hiding 
places ; and parents who might otherwise be borne to 
their graves with the painful reflection of leaving be- 
hind ignorant and disobedient offspring, have their 
old age enlivened at seeing active and intelligent 
children around them to comfort and sustain such as 
remain behind. 

The councils of the nation are also often honoured 
by the presence and support of those who received 
their first impulse from the kind assistance of the 
helping hand ; and how great the satisfaction to the 
benefactor, when he hears the voice of such resound- 
ing from the forum with rich cadence and unmeasured 
effect upon the assemblage of wise men ! 

But this means of happiness, like others, is liable 
to be misapplied. The man who begins life with 
plenty, desires to end it with riches. With the influ- 
ence secured thereby, ambition to lord it over the 
more humble is felt. Gold is hoarded at the expense 
of virtue and peace. The thought confines itself to 
ignoble ends. In the search for hidden treasure the 
eye looks not within the heart, and darkness begins 
to settle over the fairest portions of human nature. 
The cry of the poor for bread is not heard. The walls 



292 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

of the sanctuary decay. Dust thickens upon the page 
of learning. The accursed thing haunts the vision 
by day and by night, until the spirit loses its vitality. 
Or assuming other forms, the abuse of the abundant 
means of comfort and happiness may end in a career 
of extravagance, sensuality, or pride. 

Peace is a crowning gift to man. Though last in 
our catalogue of blessings, it may be said to include 
them all. As a nation, the " pomp and circumstance 
of war " has faded away from its borders, and " the 
sword has been turned into a ploughshare, and the 
spear into a pruning-hook." The husbandman goes 
to his field with songs of gladness, and returns at 
evening to the bosom of his quiet family. The school- 
boy, with sachel, is on his way to the retreat of learn- 
ing. Unbarred are the gates of justice. Opened are 
the store-houses of the merchant. Swiftly glide the 
ships, outward bound, with the fruits of industrious 
toil. Eepose fills the whole land. 

With man, as an individual, peace is no less im- 
portant. For what avails it, if the nation reposes 
unless the single mind is at rest ? There is no ex- 
ternal war, no contest between man and his fellow- 
man; but there may be daily conflicts in the isolated 
heart. But now it is here also that peace holds out 
her banners, and the circumstances surrounding the 
subject of it all tend to his benefit. With friends to 
commune with and amuse ; with health to go out and 
in as he may desire ; with agreeable objects of pur- 
suit ; with equable range of thought, and tempers 
unruffled by acrimonious tongues, the day of life glides 
gently on to its termination. But withal, by having 
no calls for energetic action, the mind loses its 



FAITH IN PllOSPERITY. 293 

strength, the body becomes impaired in vigour, there 
is a soporific effect from even the air breathed, and 
the peace may very soon end in deadness and disgust. 
" A little more sleep, a little more slumber, a little 
more folding of the hands together," may be the 
lament of the sluggard, when the less favoured are 
early at work. 

Now we might reasonably suppose that the combi- 
nation of the three blessings here enumerated would 
secure to man the greatest amount of happiness ; that 
by them he should be fully able to perfect himself in 
the fear of God, and attain to a high state of moral 
advancement. These things are no doubt designed 
by Providence as positive, though relative, blessings ; 
and the proper use of them should always result 
in the most abundant good. Often in the Scriptures 
are they spoken of as " a reward of well-doing." And, 
though scarce half perhaps enjoy such blessings, yet 
they promise so much happiness that the whole human 
family hope for something like them, as what alone 
would satisfy their desire. Therein it is imagined 
that faith would flourish most, as giving time and 
opportunity for religious exercises. With health, 
plenty, and peace, what could they not perform, and 
reasonably expect ? Having health, they could go up 
to the house of the Lord, and mingle their voices with 
those of the great congregation, and aided by such 
mighty means of grace, lift their hearts to God. Hav- 
ing a sufficiency of the means of support, and for be- 
nevolent purposes, how could they fail of happiness in 
retiring to the shades of quiet life, and meditating 
upon their religious state ? Or, having these means, 
how loftily could they rise by the charities they would 



294 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

bestow upon their fellow-men below tliem in the grade 
of worldly importance, and by the opportunities of 
improving their tastes and other faculties ! With 
peace at home, abroad, what could prevent their full 
test of the exercises of the mind and heart, and the 
termination of their lives in the utmost quietude? 
Yet possessing all, how often do we see men forget- 
ting God and losing all ! By neglect of health, sick- 
ness ensues. Plenty suffers by overdraughts upon 
her treasury — and what has become of Peace ? With 
only the loss of plenty, what forebodings fill the mind ! 
How often they react upon the body ! Should peace 
take its flight, of what advantage are the other two ? 
So the recipients of such high privileges are soon 
brought low, and often made to mourn over broken 
prospects and faded dreams ! And by the goodness 
of God certain reacting energies are, in the economy 
of grace, put in force to neutralize the evil tendency 
of their prosperity, and enable them to recover an 
equilibrium by means of the very things through 
which it was lost. Now lying low in despondency 
and gloom, they shall be lifted up by hope. Now 
almost dead, they shall revive and be strong again. 
Now almost at the gate of ruin, they shall yet, per- 
adventure, not be debarred entering heaven. 

There is a natural propensity in man to forget God, 
and abuse the privileges, however exalted, conferred 
upon him. Hence it follows that the soul that is 
filled with fatness too often becomes lean and desolate 
by neglecting to improve the opportunities placed be- 
fore it. There can be no doubt but that prosperity 
is an element of happiness, and that too in view of a 
future state ; but that, by very slight causes at first, 



FAITH IN PROSPERITY. 295 

the means of good so extensively prepared for his use 
may become diverted into improper channels, and at 
last really beggar both body and soul. No doubt, 
were all who possess this element to live up to the 
utmost extent of their capabilities, they would always 
find the maximum of good. But at the same time 
we are free to confess that no surer way of destroying 
the happiness of some men can be found than that of 
bestowing upon them the blessings of prosperity. To 
some even the gift of any one of the different ele- 
ments of prosperity will so open paths of temptation 
to excess that it becomes a source of injury. To very 
many, perhaps all of these branches of happiness com- 
bined are sufficient to attract abundant temptation to 
evil, and to jeopardize their best interests. But all 
the while, it should be remembered, the danger is not 
in these rudiments of happiness, technically speaking, 
but confined to the natural depravity of the heart, 
which so far overcomes the subject of divine munifi- 
cence as to turn the means of moral improvement 
into undue channels. So the elements of nature, such 
as fire and water, are doubtless given to man for ben- 
eficial purposes, and by the judicious application of 
them the happiest results are obtained. By the for- 
mer of these we illuminate our streets and houses, 
and the want of it would be felt as a great misfortune. 
It protects the body from the severity of winter, pre- 
pares the food that sustains life ; and yet reflect for 
a moment how dangerous an element it is when put 
to perverted uses! Instead of performing its kind 
offices, it destroys the hopes of thousands, when con- 
suming the storehouse and granary, or in driving 
from their uncomfortable but only homes the family 



296 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

of the poor. Or when by some mishap the spark is 
communicated to the stubble of the forest, like wide- 
spread desolation it sweeps on its way, filling with 
consternation both man and brute, and blighting the 
prospects of the woodman and hunter. By the latter 
the thirst is quenched, and the earth softened for the 
production of food and the sustentation of the life of 
all things. Without it the earth would be parched 
to barrenness, and the sea become as the dry laud. 
But there is also a way of abusing this gift. By 
neglecting to curb its power, the insect miner, plying 
his unremitting task within the dam and dike, lets 
loose the flood upon the tenantry and fields of the 
lowlander ; or by concocting out of it too greatly the 
elements of swift motion upon the seas, the ship that 
would otherwise steam safely on her journey becomes 
a scene of terrible disaster, as the cry of the doomed 
inmates rings out over the merciless waters, and the 
fragments of the vessel tell the painful story. Now 
should it be concluded that because of the latent ef- 
fects of these elements, Providence should withhold 
them altogether? Certainly not. To have elements 
of good, all earthly things must be subjected to the 
liability of misapplication ; and what might be con- 
sidered of and in itself a perfect constituent of happi- 
ness may, by associations common and always implied, 
engender the concomitant evil. 

There is ever an involuntary imperfection contained 
in the rudiments of all human institutions or condi- 
tions of being, and which must forever stand an un- 
removed basis of evil ; for, by the corruption of man 
through the fall, the perfection known as existent 
prior to the first transgression was displaced, and re- 



FAITH IN PROSPERITY. 297 

mains since confined only to heavenly things. The 
case was therefore reversed so as to make good to 
grow up from a foundation of evil ; whereas before the 
fall and in it, evil might only build upon the good or 
perfect. And this accidental reversal of things is 
obliged to stand until the end of the world. Now, 
evil is bottommost in the heart, and good without ; then, 
virtue was ivithin, and evil was only contracted from 
its presentation through the serpeftt. But the evil 
we now speak of is voluntary ; and whilst the whole 
system of temporalities is dependently imperfect, the 
avenues placed before men by prosperity may lead to 
independent evils, or such as have none but a voluntary 
connexion with human destiny. The desire to sin is 
a dependent upon original sin, or the displacement and 
destruction of the first state of perfection ; the exer- 
cise of that desire upon externals as elements of use, 
is voluntary and independent. Hence God, in placing 
at the disposal of mankind the choicest condition of 
life, is not to be held accountable for the folly of man 
in overstepping the bounds of reason, and wrecking 
or lessening his happiness. In his infinite goodness 
and unparalleled wisdom, God, we believe, never fails 
amidst what appears to human sight inexplicable and 
confused providences, to keep around and about man 
the very best order of circumstances for his improve- 
ment, safety, and future happiness ; and that no abuse 
of successive descending grades of condition can reach 
a point where there is not awaiting a graduated pro- 
vision of the most excellent kind that can belong 
to it, for the immediate use of man in his reduced 
estate. By voluntarily throwing himself down from 
an upper range of blessings, man could not reasona- 

13* 



298 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

bly expect that God would continue the former state 
in every particular : this, as it will perhaps more fully 
appear in the sequel, would not be any proof of either 
the Creator's goodness or wisdom ; but the most he 
could look for would be such means of rebuilding his 
lost prosperity as were naturally connected with his 
state. Either less or more means would remain un- 
applied, and strangers to the narrower circle he had 
now come to fill.* And there is no state so low but 
what by faith and obedience the soul may be brought 
out of it ; and not only so, in its improvement x>r prog- 
ress afterward, instead of ranging constantly and 
only within this circumference, there will be an up- 
ward tendency operating so as to range back to some 
extent towards its first or best position. Admitting 
the best condition to be a state of prosperity, the 
direction taken will be for it ; and although life may 
close before a complete return is effected, yet the in- 
centives are all favourable to such results. Old age 
may, for instance, find a man who was once in the en- 
joyment of this prosperity deprived by sinful excesses 
of a vast proportion of it. He may be sick, poor, and 
miserable ; the repentance he shows, though securing 
his eternal welfare, may not so reinstate him in the 
enjoyment of health, plenty, or peace, and all the 
blessings associated with them. The way back is too 
long for his remaining years; he is verging on the 
other world, and must hasten his departure, and so 
can only just close his life with the exit from the low 
condition he has reached. Were the days of the pa- 
triarchs to be allotted to him, he might yet rise from 
health to plenty and peace, provided his days of trans- 
gression had been only few. The journey from a high 



FAITH IN PROSPERITY. 299 

to a lower condition is step by step; and tie return to 
the old haunts of virtue long lost, is to be made by a 
progress even less rapid. The captive of sin goes 
bound with the golden bands of the tempter about 
him, and leaps joyfully on his way; the victim, when 
the fetters are broken, returns with triumph it is 
true, but the tear of remorse is to be seen in the eye. 
The sinner goes running down the highway towards 
the city of destruction ; but he comes back, if at all, 
with the step of caution and the gait of the thought- 
ful and sedate. 

By reference to the Scriptures will be seen the na- 
ture of the prosperity we have alluded to, and illus- 
trations of its use and enjoyment by those w T ho were 
so highly favoured by Heaven : — 

" And the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a 
prosperous man." Gen. xxxix, 2. 

" And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the 
country of Goshen ; and they had possessions therein, 
and grew, and multiplied exceedingly." Gen. xlvii, 27. 

" And the Lord thy God will make thee plenteous 
in every work of thy hand, — in the fruit of thy land, 
for good: for the Lord will again rejoice over thee 
for good, as he rejoiced over thy fathers." Deut. 
xxx, 9. 

" And it came to pass, when the king sat in his 
house, and the Lord had given him rest round about 
from all his enemies." 2 Sam. vii, 1. 

" And thy house and thy kingdom shall be estab- 
lished forever before thee : thy throne shall be estab- 
lished forever." 2 Sam. vii, 16. 

" Behold, I have done according to thy words : lo, I 
have given thee a wise and an understanding heart. — 



300 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

And I have also given thee that which thou hast not 
asked, both riches and honour: so that there shall 
not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy 
days." 1 Kings iii, 12, 13. 

" And if thou wilt walk in my ways to keep my 
statutes and my commandments, as thyfather David did 
walk, then I will lengthen thy days." 1 Kings iii, 14. 

"Blessed be the Lord that hath given rest unto his 
people Israel, according to all that he promised." 

1 Kings viii, 56. 

" Therefore the Lord established the kingdom in 
his hand ; and all Judah brought to Jehoshaphat 
presents ; and he had riches and honour in abundance. 
And his heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord." 

2 Chron. xvii, 5, 6. 

"And the Lord said, Let them return, therefore, 
every man to his house in peace." 2 Chron. xviii, 16. 

" And when they began to sing and to praise, the 
Lord set ambushments against the children of Am- 
nion, Moab, and Mount Seir, which were come against 
Judah ; and they were smitten." 2 Chron. xx, 22. 

" Then they returned, every man of Judah and 
Jerusalem, and Jehoshaphat in the fore-front of them, 
to go again to Jerusalem with joy ; for the Lord had 
made them to rejoice over their enemies." 2 Chron. 
xx, 27. 

" So the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet : for his 
God gave him rest round about." 2 Chron. xx, 30. 

"And the Lord turned the captivity of Job: — also 
the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before." 
Job xlii, 10. 

" So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more 
than his beginning." Job xlii, 12. 



FAITH IN PROSPERITY. 301 

" And lie shall be like a tree planted by the rivers 
of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season : 
his leaf also shall not wither ; and whatsoever he do- 
efch shall prosper." Psa. i, 3. 

* The Lord is my shepherd ; I shall not want." 
Psa. xxiii, 1. 

" His soul shall dwell at ease ; and his seed shall 
inherit the earth." Psa. xxv, 13. 

" Because thou hast made the Lord which is my 
refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation, there 
shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague 
come nigh thy dwelling." Psa. xci, 9, 10. 

" With long life will I satisfy him, and show him 
my salvation." Psa. xci, 16. 

" The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree ; 
he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon." Psa. xcii, 12. 

"Yet setteth he the poor on high from affliction, 
and maketh him families like a flock." Psa. cvii, 41. 

" Wealth and riches shall be in his house ; and his 
righteousness enclureth forever. He shall not be 
afraid of evil tidings : his heart is fixed, trusting in 
the Lord." Psa. cxii, 3, 7. 

" He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lift- 
eth the needy out of the dung-hill ; that he may set 
him with princes, even with the princes of his people." 
Psa. cxiii, 7, 8. 

"For thou shalt eat the labour of thy hands: 
happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee." 
Psa. cxxviii, 2. 

It therefore becomes manifest from such passages 
as these, that there is an elevated condition of life 
promised as a reward of obedience, as being that in 
which mankind can best exert themselves for general 



302 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

good. If distress lies hard upon any, the promise of 
relief appears ; if any are sick, the hope is set before 
them of coming health ; and whatever be the state 
of adversity into which the soul has fallen by neglect 
and disobedience, the reverse of it is a hope which the 
Creator allows such to enjoy. And there appears, 
moreover, in substantiation of this view, an innate de- 
sire for the very position in life which the Scriptures 
offer as a reward of well-doing; and a desire to avoid, 
or, when upon us, to shake off, the antipodal state 
which causes suffering. The mind wants a wide scope 
and the body free action in which to be exercised, and 
everything that tends to hamper them is in view of 
prosperity being considered as the normal state, ob- 
noxious to peace ; and the restraint changes into only 
a tolerable mode of life whenever there has been a 
prostration of the hopes or loss of the normal state to 
which we have alluded, and the man longs for a re- 
turn to the forfeited condition. With health, man 
exults and looks upon sickness as afar off. With 
sickness upon him, how he pines for the other state ! 
With plenty around him, he thinks of poverty of his 
own as something unrealized and scarcely understood; 
but when his means of support are gone, he is rest- 
less in anxiety for their return. And so in regard to 
peace. He sees it depart with regret ; and with noth- 
ing around him externally to minister comfort, he 
sighs for the quiet that he possessed before. Hu- 
manity craves these honourable modes of being be- 
cause they are favourable, and, when deprived of 
them, the mind cannot rest with the same abundant 
quiet as when in their enjoyment ; nor do those who 
have never yet been blessed therewith, though not 



FAITH IN PROSPERITY. 303 

feeling the loss, fail to miss a degree of happiness 
that exists in idea and fact as the best condition of 
worldly good. And would men by proper conduct but 
retain their most desirable prospects, as far as the nat- 
urally disordered state of all things human or earthly 
would permit, though health could not always con- 
tinue nor plenty give perfect ease, yet there would 
not be such a loss as to merit reproof from Heaven, 
nor bring them down headlong into spheres of un- 
natural dimensions, and confine them in a prison- 
house to hope to the end of their days. But there are 
the natural propensities always at hand, and by little 
and little man veers from his true course until the 
elements of earthly happiness are deranged, new com- 
binations of circumstances cluster around his destiny, 
and the earnest and sincere struggle begins for that 
position ultimately which insures the greatest amount 
of mental and moral good. 

With everything so favourable as prosperity indi- 
cates, with mind, and body, and circumstances all en- 
couraging to the performance of the greatest good, it 
would seem that faith should be in the most lively 
exercise, and the heart continue in possession of the 
purest enjoyment that could be given. This is the 
unavoidable tendency of such a state of things inde- 
pendent of the natural desire to sin, and its evidently 
partial tendency even under such unfortunate con- 
ditions of being as natural corruption superinduced. 
In the midst of these blessings recognised as choice 
in their quality, the eye of faith should look furthest 
and behold with greatest clearness. Incense should 
most naturally rise from the hearts of men so pros- 
pered below, and the soul make her greatest boasts in 



304 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

the Most High for his loving kindness. And still 
there are many men having all these advantages who 
have no faith ; but consider who they are. They are 
such as are often described in the Scriptures as being 
"full and at ease;" as having a strength of body 
that is being undermined by some trifling excess, and 
a whole organization and an order of circumstances 
around them that will finally bring them down. By 
not exercising faith and practising godliness consistent 
with their privileges, they may rest assured that one 
by one, or all together, their comforts will take wing 
and fly away. By such examining minutely into their 
state and prospects, they will find some canker here, 
some avenue opening there, or some cloud beginning 
to rise above the distant horizon that portends evil; 
and although faith might be the better exercised in 
the position they occupy, yet peradventure God will 
discover that nothing but a loss of their privileges 
and a change in their circumstances can save them 
from eternal ruin. So it argues nothing against the 
fact of prosperity being the normal state of life, and 
adversity its abnormal phase. In reference to each 
man's position at a given time, however changed from 
primitive elevation, the state assumed is admitted to 
be normal as to him then, for it is dependent upon the 
wise arrangements of Providence to meet it and make 
it the best under the circumstances of his voluntary 
action in placing himself therein ; yet in reference to 
his other and more original state, it is only derivative, 
secondary, or, as we have termed it, abnormal To 
the praise of God every man's state in life is normal 
as to him, and since he has fallen into it in the de- 
scending scale of transgression, or risen to it in the 



FAITH IN PROSPERITY. 305 

ascending scale on account of a recovery from his 
degradation, there are thrown around him the moral 
influences best suited to his wants. But some may 
say this would prove that humanity presents a state 
of sin and confusion, and yet every man occupies the 
best state he is capable of, and shows a remarkable 
foresight and mercy in God in immediately arranging 
every derangement effected by man, in healing every 
breach of sin, and in opening to every soul a way to 
escape from its misery. Not the best state he is capa- 
ble of, do we say, for we assume that to have been 
lost; but the best for his recovery from that which is 
so bad. 

Hence we would urge it upon all to try to maintain 
health if they have it; if not, to improve it; and so 
with the other ingredients of prosperity, as it is a state 
designed as a boon to all, and affords the best opportu- 
nity for honouring God over every condition of lower 
grade. But if all of these — health, plenty, and peace — 
should fail, despair not, thou man of sorrow, but hon- 
estly strive for them all with a desire to devote all to 
the glory of God ; and though life may be too short 
to return entirely, still his favour may be secured 
and much suffering avoided, and likewise much hap- 
piness secured. Thy flesh may yet possibly come to. 
thee as that of a little child ; the heavens may drop 
down fatness, and thy peace flow as a river without 
and within thy soul. 



306 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 



CHAPTEE XI 

FAITH IN ADVERSITY. 

The declaration of the Saviour, that " the poor ye 
have always with you," needs, one would suppose, no 
confirmation of its truth. In all parts of the wide- 
spread dominions of the Creator, and in all time 
since men began to multiply and fill the earth, there 
have been the oppressor and oppressed ; the bond and 
free ; the rich and poor. From every land and among 
all nations that have dwelt on the earth there has 
gone up to the portals of heaven the cry of the cap- 
tive and the wail of the unhappy. Notwithstanding 
the smile of inanimate nature, the gladness of the 
merry tribes sporting on the land and in the sea, the 
chants from human tongues uprising from the scenes 
of mirth or joy, there has gone up also from all the 
abodes of men the notes of lamentation and sorrow. 
These notes were first heard as Eve bade adieu to her 
beloved haunts in the garden of Paradise, to return to 
them no more. They were heard when the voice of 
Abel's murder came up from the ground, where he 
had been met by his wicked brother. From the sites 
of Sodom and Gomorrah at the time of their overthrow ; 
from the land of Egypt when the children of Israel 
were oppressed by Pharaoh ; and it resounded along 
the shores of the Dead Sea when the Egyptian hosts 
were choked by the troubled waters. It was heard 
when the threescore cities of the king of Bashan were 
destroyed by the hand of Moses ; at Makkedah, when 
the five kings were slain by Joshua ; from the moun- 



FAITH IN ADVERSITY. 307 

tains of Gilboa, at the death of Saul and Jonathan ; 
at the destruction of Jerusalem, in later times, and in 
all places where tyranny has flourished there have been 
manifested the evidences of human woe. There has 
ever been & positive and negative state of existence, the 
sunshine and the cloud of life ; and as the night con- 
stitutes half of the period of time, so we may say sor- 
row makes up half of the history of the world. 

" The poor ye have always with you," but not the 
same poor. In reflections upon this subject, the idea 
of identity in the poor is too ready to set itself before 
the mind, as though the millions of poor whom w r e see 
in our streets, and all over the land, have always been 
so, and the broad circle of misery has ever encom- 
passed just so many, and just such beings. But the 
poor we now behold are not necessarily the poor of 
past generations, but rather such as were once at the 
top of the mighty wheel of life, and who in the daily 
revolutions it is ever making have come to the suc- 
cessive grades of misery wherein we find them ; and 
in the long course of years they, through their pos- 
terity, will remount and be again at the zenith of 
their earthly glory. In the moving of this revolving 
circle, even in a few short centuries, we are able to 
note the rise and fall of nations and men. Where 
are the nations of Assyria and Egypt ; of Greece and 
Eome, of the Amazons and Aztecs ? We once saw 
them rising above the horizon of their youth, and 
resting for a while at the summit of their grandeur ; 
the wheel of fortune continued its onward motion, and 
they went down behind the dark mountains. And so 
with men. To-day enjoying the means of ease and 
improvement, habited in the garb of wealth, and fed 



308 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

from luxurious tables ; to-morrow the rich man has 
been stripped of his gay clothing, and the scanty food 
he receives he begs from door to door. And onward 
shall this wheel move till the end of time, hurrying 
the traveller from state to state, from happiness to 
happiness, or from misery to misery, in an unceasing 
round. 

"The poor ye have always with you/' and likewise 
the rich. While one half of mankind are working 
their way upward in the scale of being, the other are 
going down ; and the distinction between rich and 
poor can never fail so long as revolves the circle of 
destiny. Therefore it is that one portion of mankind 
must become the stewards of the other in dealing out 
the necessaries of life. And knowing the uncertainty 
of all things, how ready should they be to " feed the 
hungry, clothe the naked, and visit the sick," so that 
when their turn should come, they might with pro- 
priety look for the extended hand of charity in others ! 

This being no original device of Providence, the 
relative condition of prosperity and adversity is de- 
pendent upon the fortuitous circumstances of volun- 
tary transgression ; and while the seeds of that sin 
remain to be seen will there be changes in the pros- 
pects of men, no effort being sufficient to maintain the 
former at all times, or escape entirely the effects of 
the latter. " Dangers stand thick in all the ground" 
from the cradle to the grave ; and however wary or 
powerful, some of them will bring their hurt or misery. 
There is no such thing as perfect repose and safety ; 
and hence, although the most happy order of affairs 
take to itself the name of prosperity, nothing more is 
meant than that, relatively speaking, one condition 



FAITH IN ADVERSITY. 309 

of life is more desirable than another in view both of 
time and eternity. 

As components of the adversities of life, it may be 
proper to give sickness a prominent place, following 
with want and distress, as all being antagonistic to 
the three elements of prosperity noticed in the pre- 
ceding chapter. In them may be said to be included 
all the "ills that flesh is heir to," and, with the 
changes wrought upon them, all the attitudes of hu- 
man suffering may be discovered. By sickness man 
is not only subjected to the racking pain or scorching 
fever of the body, with all the other maladies common 
to it, but there is an additional misery produced to 
the mind in the comparison of the state now suffered 
with that of health formerly enjoyed. With the pro- 
hibition of water to quench the thirst on account of 
the raging fever, the fancy dwells with eagerness 
upon the running brooks that used to proffer their 
pure and cheering beverage. With the frame band- 
aged and fettered, the mind reverts to the time when, 
free as air, the patient roved amid the wildwood or 
scaled the mountain ; for the ringing sounds deafen- 
ing the ear is imagined the delight that arose in 
health from the songs of the birds or the music of art. 
Hence, while the body is suffering its part of the ill 
to be endured by positive disease, there springs up in 
the memory a negative disorder caused by these re- 
pinings for the condition so unhappily lost. 

Want subjects the mind to the same negative misery 
in addition to the actual suffering of the body. It is 
not all of want to feel the gnawings of hunger, the 
pinching cold of winter with no protection from it, 
with all the ingredients of penury. There is an innate 



810 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

regret, an imaginary suffering in contrasting the sit- 
uation endured with that enjoyed at some past time. 
And the greater the contrast the greater the poign- 
ancy of the reflection. So that if one has been richly 
or even amply supplied with the luxuries, comforts, 
or conveniences of life in former days, and by misfor- 
tune loses them, the bitterness of regret is graduated 
according to the difference in the two states of ease 
and want. ^ The man who has been "clad in purple 
and fine linen every day," and sat at tables loaded 
w T ith delicacies and surrounded with cheer, meditates 
with no feelings of pleasure upon the unimposing state 
of his wardrobe, or the necessity that he is under to 
eat from wooden platters, surrounded by children 
clamoring for their daily bread, or resting awhile on 
the doorway of the mansion, once owned and delighted 
in, to ask alms of the proud stranger who may now 
inhabit it. Yea, though the sense of hunger may 
drive to madness, and the blasts of winter, howling 
around the corners of the cheerless cottage, may cause 
the limbs to quiver and the blood to seek the warmer 
retreats of the heart ; though the coarse morsel is 
daintily doled out to the famishing offspring; yet the 
sorrow lying low in the bosom of grief, the sorrow that 
the change from a high to a low estate, from earlier 
grandeur to lost nobility, from wealth to poverty, from 
plenty to want, produces, is far more awful in its grasp 
and grapplings around the heart than the cords that 
bind the body to its present forlorn state. Like Sam- 
son Agonistes, the sufferer may snap the cords in sun- 
der that hamper him ; but where shall he look for 
strength to cope with the iron fetters of the mental 
evil? 



FAITH IN ADVERSITY. 311 

And so with distress — the loss of contentment, ease, 
or peace. " A wounded spirit who can bear?" was 
asked by one long since; but it has not } 7 et been an- 
swered by man. With gentle peace ever abiding 
about our homes and dwelling-places, peace in the 
borders of the nation and in the domestic circle, one 
glides softly and pleasantly down the stream of life. 
The eye wanders over its fertile possessions and scans 
with delight the ripening grain and the bending fruit- 
trees, the green meadows and the browsing herds — 
but behold ! the ruthless horde of invaders, with bugle- 
blast and tramping soldiery, enter the quiet border, 
to ravage the fields of plenty, to slaughter the flocks 
for their banquetings, and otherwise destroy the goodly 
heritage — and now where is the good man's peace? Do 
the martial banners and the glittering pomp present 
incitements of joy? On the contrary, the even tenor 
of his musings is suddenly stopped, and the demon of 
vengeance comes forth full-armed from his pent-up 
thought, giving to his muscle the strength of the 
halser, and to his frame the power of a giant. The 
tide of peace once flowing onward toward the ocean, 
now suddenly moves backward, and in the confusion 
the hand lays hold of the sword and buckler, and the 
husbandman hies to the scene of contest as a patriot 
soldier. The eye, but now all gentleness in gliding 
over the lovely prospect of continued plenty and 
solace, glistens with the spark of terrible hate; and 
not until the wife and little ones, thus cut off from 
their hopes, shall be restored to them again, will its 
fury abate. 

Or it may be his own family circle is infested with 
the spirit of discord, affording him, as the head, no 



312 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

moment of peace. Or his children may be weak and 
sickly, always tried by severe disorders, so as not to 
permit the parent to enjoy the least repose. Or, still 
worse, he may see them one by one borne away to 
their graves, or witness the wife of his bosom carried 
down the same mournful way, and long years of sor- 
row will pass before the spirit can be comforted. So 
what with these instances of distress and the betrayal 
of friendships, the cares and infirmities of old age, the 
loss of promising prospects in life, the accidents to 
body on account of exposures in the daily walk, the 
sum of destiny has a large admixture of this branch 
of evil. But when all the miseries of man's pilgrim- 
age, embraced in the terms of sickness, want, and dis- 
content, are counted, the scene of existence becomes 
one of absorbing interest. None shall escape suffer- 
ing of one kind or another. For if man be placed in 
the highest circle, with every advantage that health, 
plenty, and peace can bestow, there is the impulsive 
energy of depravity ever ready to thrust him beyond 
this desirable sphere into excess of various kinds; and 
from a wish to revel amidst the pleasures of sense, or 
to increase the bounteous store already at command, or 
to hazard the quiet of home and country by indifference 
to enterprise or energy, in the first place succeed dis- 
orders of body and mind, or in the second, the low, cark- 
ing desire for mammon, or in the third, a reaction upon 
the contentment at home and abroad, until the native 
state of vigour, abundance, and rest, are all gone, per- 
haps to return no more. Could men but remain in their 
best positions, unacted upon by any dangerous influence 
but such as was allotted to that state, though nature 
in her present disorganized condition could not pre- 



FAITH IN ADVERSITY. 813 

vent numberless evils from pressing in, yet it is en- 
couraging to know that by remaining at his proper 
post as a sentinel on duty, much of the misery he is 
often subjected to might be avoided. But men risk 
evils not properly belonging to their sphere, go be- 
yond the bounds of nature and reason, and in doing 
so are led into unknown regions of perplexity. Man 
is prone to charge upon nature the cause of his folly 
or misfortunes, forgetting that he has stepped out of 
the way where he was designed to stay, and forget- 
ting also the effort God makes to rescue him from an 
unhappy state by casting up the strongest bulwarks 
known to omnipotent grace to prevent his proceeding 
further into misery, and at the same time holding out 
the strongest inducements that can be offered for his 
speedy return to the paths of rectitude. But were all 
to observe their proper line of duty, where would be 
the sorrows of life ? By the transgression of Adam 
sin came into the world, and with it all man's unnum- 
bered woes ; and the presumption is that woes will 
continually exist. But there are evils superinduced 
by volition, independent of the general misery; and 
this is the portion of evil to which we allude. Death, 
for instance, can never be avoided by any obedience or 
ingenuity. The good die like the wicked. .And so 
is it with very many of life's sorrows ; they come alike 
to all. But still by referring to the history of man 
as far back as it extends, it will be observed that quite 
a large proportion of the evils suffered has been the 
result of, first, his own dereliction from duty ; and, 
secondarily, the means of Divine Providence in restor- 
ing him to his forfeited happiness. We turn not to 
the Bible without falling upon strains of lamentation, 

14 



314 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

just as are about us. And as God is continually 
represented as being then merciful and kind, and 
punishing for disobedience in order to restore the 
fearing to his favour, so now do the same kind of 
influences operate upon the forgetful. And as in 
the best state of the physical and moral condition, 
the faith and obedience belonging to that state 
are encouraged by God, enabling the believer to 
go from strength to strength in ennobling his 
whole nature, so should we imagine the condition 
of suffering humanity when afflicted for sinful de- 
partures from truth and right doing, as revealed 
to us in the Scriptures, to be the most appropriate 
for the rebuilding and refurnishing the moral edifice. 
God does not afflict willingly, but wisely. It is 
not his choice to afflict at all. But his mercy is so 
great that when man violates the regulations founded 
upon reason and ordained by God, chastisement is 
resorted to both by means of the scorpion sting of 
conscience and the reflection upon what is lost by 
transgressing. Eeverses cast their shadows before, 
and the spirit stirs up the inner man ; the aching 
head or heart ties the truant thought to its best 
courses, while the thunder above sounds like the voice 
of an angry God. Peace, peace is the soul's watch- 
word and cry, and the mind goes in search of the place 
where it may be found. 

The health already increased and now damaged by 
excess did not bring it ; for they have both been tried. 
The plenty already abused until augmented into 
avarice and the miser's gold, or reduced by neglect or 
indulgence, did not secure it. Nor did the peace of 
the quiet home, with all the kind influences blended 



FAITH IN ADVERSITY. 315 

with it, afford protection against its violation by in- 
difference or neglect; and the mind hastens to other 
scenes for succour. With no help or safety under pre- 
sent circumstances, the spirit points upward to the 
cross of Christ and urges the trust required in the 
Saviour. And believing or not believing, it is never- 
theless the best condition for the particular trans- 
gressor in which to believe and be saved. In another 
year the aching head may cease or the barn be full, 
and other means become necessary to meet the more 
straitened exigency of the case. What more likely 
to bring back the wanderer from duty by means of 
excessive indulgence in vice than to lay him down 
upon the bed of bodily suffering ? To the prodigal, 
who has spent his portion in riotous living, what more 
effectual in bringing him back to his father's house 
than the sense of indigence and hunger? To the 
doting parent what more powerful suggestion that his 
excessive love is misplaced than the sudden call of the 
child to the other world ? Faith needs those aids to 
lead man up to God ; and however much the state of 
prosperity encourages, fosters, or strengthens it by 
daily contact with the best influences that can bear 
upon human nature, it is also certain that for the con- 
dition of adversity there are no more effectual sources 
of moral good than are to be found in the various dis- 
quietudes of that state, and as applied to the restora- 
tion of the disobedient. In fact so great is the assist- 
ance afforded by such means in the economy of wisdom 
and grace, that the world has almost been ready to 
imagine that no state is equal to that of adversity in 
beguiling men from the paths of folly and turning 
their feet to the testimonies of wisdom : and as the 



316 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

sentiment is grounded upon such worthy views of 
God's grace and wisdom it should pass unrebuked. 
It should be stated, however, to avoid any misconcep- 
tion, that the fallacy of the deduction lies in the as- 
sumption that as mankind will, in human probability, 
continue to sin and recede from their best positions, a 
vast majority will be restored only by such curative 
means; and therefore, for purposes of real good, there 
is no state so favourable to piety as that of adversity. 
We do not see men as they, step by step, pass down 
the slippery paths of sin ; we most usually see them 
at their return, and as beings restored again to happi- 
ness, not supposing that any other condition of life 
might perhaps have been so propitious for the liberal 
exercise of faith, whereas their destiny might proba- 
bly have been higher if faith had been brought into 
use at many other periods of their career. It is true, 
the poor have a blessing pronounced upon them from 
Heaven — thanks be to God for his goodness and 
mercy — but the heirs of prosperity have their blessing 
also; and the encouragement to the poor oftentimes 
is, that they shall be made prosperous and happy — that 
" He will set the solitary in families, and their waste 
and desolate places, and the land of their destruction, 
shall even be too narrow by reason of the inhabi- 
tants, and they that swallowed them up shall be far 
away." 

If the dread of the miseries engendered by actual 
disobedience is sufficient to restrain men from the 
violation of the laws of nature and grace, it does not 
require the chastening of the Almighty to reprove 
such and lead them up to him. With a faith and zeal 
for God ever alive and burning, no duty is neglected, 



FAITH IN ADVERSITY. 817 

no mandate violated ; and, if otherwise tempted, per- 
ceiving so many means of maintaining uprightness 
and peace where they are, they refuse to be enticed 
away by their lusts or the vanities of the world, but 
obey, from the heart, with sincerity, the ordinances of 
Christ. But where the apprehensions of danger are 
insufficient for this, and the blind and silly stray, it 
requires the remedial effort of Providence to work 
upon the soul and body in order to heal the malady 
of vice. 

The good man meets the fatalities of life with an 
eye of calm trust in the Euler above, and when the 
last one befalls him he smiles with peace and triumph. 
But when the " pains of hell get hold" of the trans- 
gressor ; w T hen the information is received that flocks, 
and herds, and house, and children, are taken away, 
he is terrified at the prospect before him, and but then 
bethinks of turning to the Lord. " When wisdom 
entereth into thy heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto 
thy soul ; discretion shall preserve thee, understanding 
shall keep thee : to deliver thee from the way of the evil 
man, from the man that speaketh froward things ; who 
leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of 
darkness ; whose ways are crooked, and they froward 
in their paths." Prov. ii, 10-13, 15. But when they 
are not wise, they become unstable in all their ways, 
and must be called back to the right motives of con- 
duct, " Unto the upright there ariseth light in the 
darkness : he is gracious and full of compassion^ and 
lendeth. A good man showeth favour and lendeth: 
he will guide his affairs with discretion. He shall not 
be afraid of evil tidings ; his heart is fixed, trusting in 
the Lord." But how is it with the wicked ? " Many 



318 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

times did he deliver them, but they provoked him with 
their counsel and were brought low for their iniquity. 
Nevertheless he regarded their affliction when he heard 
their cry." " Fools, because of their transgression and 
because of their iniquities, are afflicted. Their soul 
abhorreth all manner of meat ; and they draw near 
unto the gates of death. Then they cry unto the 
Lord in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their 
distresses." 

We therefore plainly see that the condition of life 
to which we attach the name of adversity is not a 
positive but negative state, though evil is bottommost 
in the heart. It is not that state which the mind in 
its natural periods of exercise chooses as preferable, 
and it is that state out of which every one wishes to 
issue into a "larger place" when he has fallen therein. 
The mandate to the fallen is, Rise and come forth. 
It is not the desire of God to place men in this low 
estate of suffering independently of transgression, both 
original and actual, as is evidenced among other things 
by his constant and precious promises to extricate those 
who are in any trouble, and give them "joy for their 
mourning." Generation after generation disobey the 
law of God ; reason and nature, and poverty and dis- 
tress, multiply and continue from age to age. Misery 
is therefore entailed upon men, engrafted in their 
mind and body, and cannot be entirely eradicated by 
the well-chosen effort of the descendant ; and all that 
man can do is to use every means in his power to re- 
move the disorders of life and rise to that elevated 
position of mind and morals which affords the best op- 
portunity for exercising the abundant grace of God. 
There is, and ever will be, a class called the poor; but 



FAITH IN ADVERSITY, 319 

yet there is a continual change going on among their 
ranks, oftentimes resulting in the attainment, by the 
poorest, of the highest degree of honour and happiness 
the world can bestow. As one of the number consti- 
tuting this class rises, his place is filled by some other 
forlorn creature just descended to that point, and thus 
the poor ever remain. 

But let us in conclusion briefly notice the adapta- 
tion of the condition of the subject of adversity to 
the use of faith, and the adaptation of faith to it. 
In order to enable faith to improve man's moral con- 
dition, he must be brought to reflect upon his future 
prospects. If he voluntarily studies his wants, and by 
faith has them redressed, no change from a condition 
affording the best means of its exercise would perhaps 
take place, and the man constantly wise and good 
would never fail to enjoy much of health, peace, and 
plenty. But, failing to use rightly the influences 
operating upon him, he loses ground ; or, not using 
them at all, he comes still further short of the attain- 
ment of desirable ends. Now distress is calculated to 
produce reflection upon such loss, or danger for the 
time to come, and he seeks relief. By sickness he is 
withdrawn from society and enabled to note his in- 
ward state ; he finds himself in a disordered frame of 
moral feeling, and likely to become worse. The hand 
of God is upon him, and knowing himself to be too 
weak to contend against the Almighty, he surrenders 
to his guidance and receives mercy. He reflects upon 
the end of life, and grows wise. The great difficulty 
in the salvation of mankind being to get them to 
consider, to meditate deeply upon their state, no bet- 
ter means can be used in attracting the calm consid- 



320 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

eration of the unthinking than such as are to be 
found in sickness, in the loss of devoted friends, in 
the penury of life, and the failure of peace. Con- 
vinced that they are surrounded by reverses, and that 
there is a more desirable mode of life both here and 
hereafter, they repent of their former neglect, and, 
if life be too short to enable them to make much 
change here, they can at least prepare for the much 
more blissful state of immortality. In jollity many 
go recklessly on, and do not seriously reflect until the 
evil day comes, startling them by the suddenness of 
its appearing and the bitterness it brings. Then only 
is the cry for deliverance heard, saying, " What time 
I am afraid I will trust in thee." "Awake, why 
sleepest thou, O Lord ? arise, cast us not off forever. 
Wherefore hidest thou thy face and forgettest our 
afflictions and our oppression ? For our soul is bowed 
down to the dust : our belly cleaveth unto the earth. 
Arise for our help, and redeem us for thy mercies' 
sake." 

It is by solemnizing the thought that the mind will 
turn to spiritual subjects. The sinful practices of life, 
or the inherent foulness of nature, can only be profita- 
ably understood and the application encouraged to be 
made to the sole remedy for sin, when the heart be- 
comes awake to monition through such agents as 
Providence has selected for the purpose. Until the 
corruption of the heart is felt, the danger of losing 
the soul realized, and the means of escape exposed to 
view, there can be no such thing as relying on Christ 
for salvation ; and, without these considerations, to a 
greater or less extent, in this land of Bibles, man is 
bound to his forlorn hope of safety. If he will not 



FAITH IN LIFE AND IN DEATH. 321 

trim his lamp in the time of prosperity, nor buy oil 
to feed it when it has gone out, his loss is his own, 
being the result of his folly ; and the two states of 
existence being all that can be exerted over him, fail- 
ing in both to secure the good they severally afford, 
he must anticipate nothing but vengeance at the 
last day. 

The celebrated prayer of Agur was, we will sup- 
pose, dictated by a clear apprehension of the evils as- 
sociated with the extreme conditions of life. The 
riches of the world would strongly tempt to indul- 
gence and vice ; the poverty endured would urge to 
acts of villany. Therefore, the middle state of pros- 
perity appeared to present more facilities for improve- 
ment and the enjoyment of true happiness, and, as 
such, was the one sought. To a man not improving 
this choice talent other situations of life will be given, 
and the influences connected with them applied for 
the benefit of the soul ; his misfortunes being said to 
commence at the first step from the unencumbered 
way of life presenting these advantages. 



CHAPTER XII 

FAITH IN LIFE AND IN DEATH. 

A ship thronged with the living of all ages, sexes, 
and conditions, was seen nearing the place of her des- 
tination. With sails full set and a flowing breeze, 
she glided swiftly over the waters. Glad hearts 
throbbed at the thought of home, and friends, and 

H* 



822 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

ease. Eager eyes wandered along the line of coast 
for the landmarks unforgotten by the long-absent 
travellers. Gloominess settled upon the long track 
of ocean left behind, the sunlight now resting on the 
native land. But the low murmur of the wind now 
rises into the shrill whistle among the shrouds, and 
causes the eye to turn to the dark speck of cloud 
emerging as from the sea. The heavens grow black 
and the thunder begins to burst upon the astounded 
ear. Mountain-high begin the waves to surge around 
the ill-starred craft. Pale grows the cheek of the 
hardiest landsman. Quick goes the mandate from 
the captain to the crew; stayed is every brace and 
spar ; strong-nerved is every arm and heart of the 
iron seamen. But the storm still rages with unabat- 
ing fury, and the hope of the poor victims begins to 
fail. The rocks and breakers must be passed before 
the land is reached, and the demon of destruction 
seems to triumph among the reefs and ledges gird- 
ling the haven which they seek. The pilot's grasp 
grows feeble ; the wheel of the driving bark answers 
not to the eye and touch of the helmsman ; hope for- 
sakes one by one the inmates; shrieks from the howl- 
ing tempest are replied to by the shrieks of the terri- 
fied crew, and the commander gives up all for lost. 
No grave but a watery one for those whose kindred 
and friends lie in the quiet churchyard at home. 
The glad eye of the cherished ones awaiting their re- 
turn is not to be met by the fond gaze of the parent, 
the sister, the brother, again. Hope flies from her 
place in the breast, and terror and despair reign in 
her stead. But, how strange ! One fair form rises 
up among them and offers to test his skill in landing 



FAITH IN LIFE AND IN DEATH. 323 

them all safely. Eagerly they watch the calm effort 
of their new pilot as the almost foundering vessel 
bears up to the gale and breasts the foaming billows. 
Breathless anxiety is pictured on each face, and be- 
wildered hope is tempted to return and assume her 
place. The barriers of shoal, nor reef, nor sea, can 
drive the helmsman from his purpose. With mighty 
effort he urges on the ocean steed, and soon rides in 
safety at their desired haven. He has become the 
captain of their salvation. And shall not they whose 
lives and hopes have been thus restored feel eager to 
show their gratitude to their benefactor? Shall they 
not crowd around that fair and gentle form, which 
with mild though steady effort hath saved them from 
the angry depths? Shall they not trust him again 
when storms arise, and the stout heart and hand of 
the weather-beaten sailor fail to give their accus- 
tomed aid? Shall he not command their suffrage of 
praise and thanksgiving ? 

A few poor and careworn strangers, quitting their 
former homes and country to secure right of conscience 
and peace of soul, exiled hj rigour from their native 
land, after a long and dreary voyage upon unknown 
seas, at last find shelter amid the rock-bound coast of 
the shore they seek. They plant the standard of 
religious freedom upon the mountain tops of their 
adopted abiding-place, and in the joy of their heart 
fall down and pay homage to their great deliverer. 
Cheerful firesides and domestic altars are seen in 
every valley ; the husbandman goes forth in cheerful- 
ness to the duties of the field ; the young are seen on 
their way to the village school ; the flowing canvass 
unfolds the mystery of prosperity and peace. It be- 



324 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

comes the home of the exile and the lion-hearted. 
But the mother-land sees with rising fury the zeal 
and courage of her children. She binds the yoke 
heavily on their energies ; she burdens every depart- 
ment of their enterprise ; she darkens every avenue 
of their hope. They resolve to be forever free from 
such tyranny — and laying their lives and sacred 
honour side by side upon the altar of freedom, they 
await with calm and dignified thought the approach 
of their sworn enemy. With all the pomp of arms 
they invade the quiet borders of the land, and foe 
meets foe in deadly conflict; the one contending for 
civil and religious liberty, the other for mastery in 
arms. From mountain to mountain and from valley 
to valley rings out the shouting of the warlike hosts, 
and the brave patriots die as martyrs. But the de- 
fence, in point of numbers and munitions of war, is 
w r eak; and how shall the few bold sons of freedom 
contend with the power of wealth and the prestige of 
renown ? Worn with care and hunger, and exposed to 
the cold of winter unprotected ; with their firesides 
desolate, and clouds yet gathering blackness over 
their future prospects, who shall essay to give them 
deliverance from their fearful condition ? A youth, in 
whose countenance beamed gentleness, in whose eye 
burned the pure, unfailing fire of liberty, in whose 
person nature had done her work of nobility, stands 
forth in their day of trouble as the champion of hu- 
manity and justice. With a devotion unbounded both 
toward God and man, with energy unexhausted, with 
skill unequalled, he arouses the dispirited, sustains 
the afflicted, beleaguers the adversary, everywhere 
contends with the greatest dangers; and after hard- 



FAITH IN LIFE AND IN DEATH. 325 

fought battles and victorious fields have sent the 
whelps of the greedy lion back to their lair, save those 
who lie scattered abroad over the land they came to 
devour, the conquering hero lays down his sv^ord in 
the presence of his countrymen and asks no reward — 
no glory. As the saviour of his country, will they let 
his military fame die while the laurels are yet green 
upon his brow? Will the fields be tilled and the har- 
vests garnered by the children's children of those set 
free, and no fireside circle tell over the wondrous story 
of the glorious fight for freedom under the banners 
of the brave and triumphant leader ? Or will monu- 
ments rise in all the land to his memory, and his 
praises be sung by these sons of liberty? 

But a greater deliverance than this has been 
wrought for man. The whole human family were 
under the bondage of Satan, their mortal foe. The 
interests of both body and soul were at stake, and 
had been forfeited to the genius of evil. " With no 
eye to pity and no arm to save/' the chains of dark- 
ness were already forged for the disobedient. Who 
should arise in this their time of need " to save them 
out of their distresses ?" No man could be found to 
lend assistance, for all were alike under the sentence 
of destruction. The proudest, strongest, bravest 
were now alike weak and insufficient for the desired 
purpose. But one able and willing to deliver, offers 
his services, and pledges his glorious name for the 
execution of his design. And although the announce- 
ment, that in the day of transgression man should 
surely die, was uttered and ready to be executed, yet 
there was a way opened for escape ; and man had but 
to look up, trust, obey, and be restored to the favour 



326 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

of God. Jesus Christ has, therefore, become the Sav- 
iour of his people ; and that not by mere human sacri- 
fice and suffering ; but he bore the sufferings of all in 
himself, " for the iniquity of all was laid on him." Not 
a conqueror or deliverer sprung from earth merely, 
but sent from the right hand of the Father to bear 
sorrows only as the Infinite could bear them. And 
when ascending to the. place whence he came, he asked 
no plaudits or fame, but passed gently and silently 
upward to the home in the skies. And shall there be 
no trust reposed in a Saviour who has thus been re- 
vealed in fulfilment of the promise made at the be- 
ginning? Shall he not be thought " able to save to 
the uttermost all who put their trust in him ?" Upon 
this belief ?*ests the salvation of the soul. By faith in 
him we have access to the Father, and without it 
" shall no man living be justified." 

To the exercise of faith, therefore, the young are 
called. At the age when conscience begins its teach- 
ings, and points to heaven as the home of childhood, 
is this faith to be put in requisition. By belief in 
human wisdom, the tender mind learns to cling for 
support to the experienced and loving parent ; and 
when the thought of death comes nigh, as it some- 
times will, faith begins to rise, and grows with the 
moral growth. They may not be able to use the faith 
of old age in its clearness and strength ; but as the 
mind expands so as to meet the demands upon it, the 
faith will grow also, and adopt needful truths and 
doctrines. They mix with their daily prospects the 
rich colourings of fancy; faith will also expect to clothe 
itself with golden hues. Earthly beauty fills the eye 
in this glad day of youth ; faith will be ready to paint 



FAITH IN LIFE AND IN DEATH. 327 

the angel throng more lovely still. Sentiment and 
feeling will gush warmly at the appearance of good 
or ill ; sympathies will prove enchanting, and ready 
to flow every moment. The recital of the suffering 
and love of Christ for little children will draw the 
ready tear and smile. The ear awakes to the song 
of birds when spring makes them happy, and so will 
it listen to the simple ballad sung by the tuneful 
band of the worshippers. By the use of faith, when 
young, how much may not the middle-aged and old 
escape ? Believing what the Lord has said as a con- 
stant rule, where shall not their aspirations extend ? 
Not to the lofty seats of fame merely, but onward in 
the highway of a glorious destiny, even in this world, 
and still onward to the hopes that cluster around the 
throne above. Believing confidently in God, how many 
snares laid for their feet will be avoided ; how many 
whirlpools of quick destruction escaped in later years, 
and how clearly shall the eye of the aged perceive the 
path of duty ! Uncramped by a wounded spirit, youth 
shall expand the wing in a genial sun, while darkness 
is resting upon the vision of the scorner. Avoiding 
many ills of life, all the good is, by such, extracted 
and enjoyed ; the probation being one of pleasant du- 
ties and daily peace. The eye is closed in ready slum- 
ber as the night invites, and the gentle spirit often 
wanders to the upper world, to hold its communion 
with the angels, till morning calls to wakefulness. 
The ignorant go mourning to the graves of their chil- 
dren, and refuse to be comforted for their loss; but 
the little heir of immortality, remembering the Sav- 
iour's words, tells by his manner that the earth is not 
the only home of the young. In the Father's house 



328 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

are many mansions, — if it had not been so, the Saviour 
would have told us, — mansions for the old, the middle- 
aged, and also for the tender in years. They do not 
realize all the sentiment and feeling here of the strong 
and experienced ; yet while the broad and deep stream 
courses unyieldingly towards the ocean, bearing the 
waters of many fountains, and mixed with the col- 
lected sands of various soils, the tremulous rivulet 
leaps from its mountain haunts, and goes sparkling 
and leaping on to the larger water. Each bears on 
its bosom all the joy fulness it can hold. Indepen- 
dently happy, they are likewise dependently so. For 
the river shall not say to the water-brook, " I have no 
need of thee/' as then its volume would cease to flow. 
Nor shall the streamlet say, " I have no need of thee," 
for the ocean should not then send up its mists to the 
heavens, to be distilled again on the mountains and 
valleys. 

Middle-age is also the time for the use of faith. 
With growing years come increased responsibilities. 
The faith previously indulged, when the few duties of 
childhood required it, will not answer for middle-life. 
Enlarged cares and hopes call for larger means of 
meeting them unruffled and resigned. This is a period 
when many prospects will fail that looked gorgeous in 
earlier days. The seed-time has passed, and now 
spring up the wheat and tares sown long before. 
The mountain-tops, that seemed so gaily draped with 
gilded clouds, as beheld far in the distance when young, 
are only heaps of barren rocks, shedding now no 
lustre. The sunlight that gilded then now rests on 
the distant landscape, awaiting the eye of the less brill- 
iant fancy. This is the time in which to form con- 



FAITH IN LIFE AND IN DEATH. 329 

nexions for life-long duration, for eternity, it may be ; 
and what checks and guards are needed to select 
aright ? One false step may lead to untold misery ; 
one false hope may bind the soul in fetters of brass. 

It is a time for action and enterprise for the good 
of the human race. The young can do but little else 
than cheer the old, as they totter to their graves, leav- 
ing to middle-age the principle cares and responsibili- 
ties. The gospel must be borne across the ocean to 
the heathen. Who shall do it ? The man of middle- 
life. The nation must be guarded from presumptuous 
foes by the nervous and stout-hearted ; and who are 
they ? Not youth, with their play-things of fancy ; 
nor the gray-beards, with their shrunken limbs and 
palsied hearts. No : the nation looks to the bold and 
brave soldier to defend her cause, and he must fight 
her battles. The proud ship must be sent abroad to 
every land, to link people with people and heart to 
heart, as in a common brotherhood; and who must 
stretch the sails and guide the helm while crossing the 
sea ? The boy who sails his toy-ship upon the puddle ; 
or the octogenarian, who shivers by the fireside at the 
sound of the winds without ? By no means. The 
sturdy adventurer must leave his home and friends, 
and mingle with the vices of foreign lands beyond the 
pale of civilization, and where God is scarcely known, 
if known at all. So this becomes indeed a time for 
faith and settled principles. The counsels and admo- 
nitions of the Saviour are for all time and places, and, 
believed in and practised, they will prove a safeguard 
and blessing in every hour of danger or trial. And 
if any need the sympathies of heaven or earth, surely 
they should not be named last who expose themselves 



330 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

to the hazards and suffering of Avar ; or those who, year 
after year, buffet the waves as seamen, tying at every 
touch of their cordage the hearts and interests of the 
stranger portions of mankind faster and faster to- 
gether. Away from the gentle influence of parents 
and children, with the haunts of their early hours far 
distant, they need much, much of the supports of re- 
ligion to restrain them from folly and enable them 
to secure that haven whereunto we all wish to come. 
" They who do business upon great waters see the 
power of God" to a great extent ; and surely if they 
had their hope anchored safely within the veil they 
might ride out their storms with a loftiness of feeling 
and grandeur of soul unknown to the rest of men. 
Catching glimpses of the glory and wisdom of the 
Creator from such evidences of his power, the tempest 
would become a school of instruction, and the raging 
billows but bear them nearer to the Majesty on 
high. 

It is a season in which the young are to be reared 
and taught. Upon no other class can this duty devolve. 
The tender scions of intelligent life are their lot and 
inheritance ; to them much of care and attention is 
necessarily due. The child comes into the world some- 
times with feeble but usually with nervous frame; but, 
however this may be, he comes with the nature of the 
first parents as well as last, and so with a corrupt 
heart. The seed sown before he is born, will, in due 
time, endeavour to spring up and produce harvests of 
evil. To the parents, therefore, is committed no little 
trust when the young are given to bless and cheer 
their way in life. They become the guides and 
guardians of their morals, and how shall this trust be 



FAITH IN LIFE AND IN DEATH. 331 

discharged without a personal faith in Christ, with all 
the virtues it produces? Shall the simple fancy of 
youth be crushed by the rude touch of the morose or 
peevish, or the vain and illusory plans of childhood be 
fostered and cherished? Shall vices become play- 
things in their hands, and shall they be made to drink 
in folly ? To rear them up in the fear and nurture of 
the Lord, great attention must be paid to their morals. 
And who but parents themselves, entertaining the 
proper reverence for truth, can perform this service so 
reasonably demanded ? To point the eye of the young 
to the Delectable Mountains, they must have distinct 
views of these themselves. To beg them to listen to 
the sweet music of the land of Beulah, they themselves 
must have an ear for the songs of the bird and the 
trill of the fountain. To point their thoughts to the 
Saviour, the friend and patron of little children, they 
must first behold him in the heavens, at the right hand 
of the Father, interceding for all. To bind their heart 
to the throne of God, they must be united thereto 
themselves, and show, by a daily walk and godly con- 
versation, their pious love and obedience. If, there- 
fore, parents are destitute of faith, what havoc will 
sin not make among the tender lambs! Presiding 
over the destiny of the child, how shall the unbeliev- 
ing parent fulfill his mission ? He never calls on the 
name of the Lord, and shall his offspring be mindful 
of God ?" There is no domestic altar where he dwells, 
and shall the sacrifice be offered by the tenants ? No 
knee is bent by the mother at the time of vespers, and 
shall the imitative child clasp its tiny hands in devo- 
tion? The father quaffs the beverage of destruction, 
and shall his son quench his thirst with untainted 



332 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

water? The father and mother both march in tri- 
umph, with uplifted banners and songs of joy, down 
the broad way to ruin, and shall their children mount 
up, single-handed and alone, the sides of the dark 
mountains, seeking the delightful land on the other 
side ? No, no ; it cannot be. As well look for kind 
flowers to spring up where thorns and nettles are 
planted ; to hope for pure streams where naught but 
turbid fountains prevail, as to expect the tutorage of 
vice to inculcate lessons of virtue, or the understand- 
ing that is dark to shed a rich and wholesome light 
upon the mind of the ignorant Where no sun hath 
risen upon the earth, there will be seen no dew-drop 
glistening in the valley; where dark clouds pervade 
the heavens, there will be neither felt nor seen the 
genial sunshine, that both warms and cheers. Parents 
who rear their children without the aid of true faith, 
guiding them round with the stays and braces of a 
trust in Christ, never ending, never declining, are 
but setting them upon the wild asses of the desert, to 
roam swiftly and free. 

But to another class also is youth committed. 
Many of the young lose their parents quite early in 
life, and have to become the foster children of the 
stranger. With an eye upon the graves of their de- 
parted parentage and an eye turned they know not 
whither, little pilgrims and wayfarers indeed upon an 
inhospitable shore, with a father, it is true, in heaven, 
but none on earth, they stand in want of a guiding 
hand, and a hand too warmed by the touch of sym- 
pathy. If in numbers, it is true, their little hands and 
hearts shall be united in a devotion to one another that 
pictures the loves of the angels ; but if alone in the 



FAITH IN LIFE AND IN DEATH. 333 

world, with parents, and "brothers, and sisters, all taken 
away, then the earth will, in truth, become a land of 
strangers and the soul yearn over its secret grief. The 
stones of the valley have become indeed cold to their 
cheek ; the path along which they tremblingly go un- 
commonly beset with thorns ; the pitiless peltings of 
the storm immeasurably severe. Such shall see the 
fond embraces of parent and child continually about 
them, and shall it have no effect on their condition? 
Yes ; they will remember the hours when they were 
pressed to the fond bosom, and the tear of anguish 
will trickle. They shall behold the blazing hearth 
with its cheerful fireside of happy denizens, old and 
young together, and can they not become enamoured 
of life ? Yes ; they shall see the comfort-giving circle 
of love and union, but they will deem it cheerless and 
chilling compared with the warm glow of tenderness 
and sympathy known in younger years at their own 
beloved homes. 

The orphan, therefore, especially needs the assist- 
ance of faith and deep piety in those to whose care he 
may be surrendered. No ordinary fervour of affection 
w T ill answer to guide the zeal of the mere foster parent 
or guardian in its full work of sympathy. The 
strange love of Christ for outcasts as well as for 
others must be often called to mind, or the feeling 
that appears affection to the patron will be nothing 
but indifference in the judgment of the child. Like 
the magnet, all else but genuine sympathy will be re- 
pelled ; and unless the love of Christ exists in the 
heart of the guardian, attempts at consolation will be 
but failures with his charge. If faith be needed at 
all in life, it would seem to be supremely so in this 



334 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

department of it ; for as long as the world lasts 
there must continue to be fatherless children, the 
ravages of death being confined to no particular time 
nor place. Like a besom of destruction, it sweeps 
across the earth, and the cry of dying parents for 
their bereft offspring will not avail to stay the hand 
of the slayer. And especially is faith needed by those 
who are to instruct this class of youth. They certainly 
stand in need of kind and profitable teaching, as their 
prospects depend so materially upon it. Give them 
not into the hands of the severe and misguided, else 
they will begin life badly and end it no better. 
Their instructors must have their own minds imbued 
with the spirit of Christ, and be filled with a desire to 
see the orphans made happy. So training them, the 
sorrows of life shall be greatly mitigated, and the 
sympathy of the instructor meet its rich reward. 

But the old have their need of faith, for they but 
linger upon the verge of the unseen state. They 
have outlived most or many of their early compan- 
ions ; they have seen their children borne away, who 
have not since returned ; the tree that sheltered them 
from the summer heats in the days of their childish 
pastimes has been riven by the bolt, or, gradually de- 
caying from the encroachments of time with rotten 
heart and scragged branches has in the moment of 
some friendly gale been laid prostrate; the old family 
dwelling that had protected them in earliest infancy 
from the cold without, and been a covert and resting- 
place ever since, has at last decayed, and the rich 
reminiscence lost its guiding spirit to the many 
sunny spots around its corners, and now they but 
await the call to go hence in the way the fathers have 



FAITH IN LIFE AND IN DEATH. 335 

gone. They have passed over the limits of their own 
generation, and stand up tremblingly among the men 
of another age. They belong not to the ancients, nor 
can they claim fellowship with the moderns; they be- 
long to no period or place ; they have, like bold mari- 
ners, pushed their ships into distant and unknown 
seas, and, as their compatriots, have long since had 
their crafts scattered on past and distant shores, 
wrecked and dismantled they float on as wafted in 
search no more of the land of the living but of the 
dead. They have seen men die both with faith and 
without it. They have been eye-witnesses of its ex- 
cellence. They meet with but little sympathy from 
the stirring and bustling world. Life is too short to 
tarry for the purpose of hearing the stolid history of 
by-gone events, filling their thought. The younger 
must ]ook ahead that no flitting prospect pass un- 
seen ; they must tread alone the round of memory, 
and live solitary in the age which was their day. 
They conceive themselves not needed in the world, 
and pine for the last place of repose. Surely in the 
midst of the difficulties surrounding them, they need 
the refuge offered by faith in the adorable Saviour. 
He has endured longer than they. The lines of his 
duration are extended both ways, to eternity back- 
ward and forward, meeting and lost in the circle of 
eternity. He knew the old tree where in the spring- 
time of life they gamboled. He remembers well the 
day of their first thought on his name. He has not 
forgotten the evening hour when the pious parent for 
the first time repeated His own recorded prayer ; nor 
the occasions when their hand was opened to give 
bread to the hungry, clothe the naked, or soften the 



336 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

pillow of the sick. And so of all the events of young 
life and old. Hence He can wander with the aged in 
their travels of memory, and refresh their spirits with 
the animating scenes, leading them to the sunshine 
and gladness that inhabit there, and softening and 
subduing their careworn hearts : for it is He that 
" maketh them to lie down in green pastures ; he 
leadeth them beside the still waters." 

And the same faith will also point to the quiet 
scenes of repose beyond the river of death. Faint 
but true visions of the wide and extended fields lying 
within the pleasurable dominions of the great King 
will be allowed. By listening attentively they shall 
catch the soul-inspiring strains of the vast multitudes 
that people them. He will ere long take them from 
their strange and weary pathway, and plant them upon 
the hitherside shore of eternity, to commence their 
youthful and more stately steppings. Having had 
faith through life until its greatest trials came, shall 
they now put it aside and rely on their own strength? 
Or, shall they not rather cling more and more closely 
to the true friend of their young, their middle years, 
and now of their infirm age also, and fix the eye yet 
more fully on the cross ? The cross of Christ should 
not only remain planted at the garden of Gethse- 
mane, but faith should erect it over each human 
grave ; and the old, especially, should fix their gaze 
steadfastly on it there, and take courage at the warm, 
rich light it sheds over the tomb. If that cross be 
not near, the prospect is dark and uninviting, and the 
weak-hearted might be inclined to escape from enter- 
ing that house prepared for all the living. But 
within reach of the Saviour, though it be but the 



FAITH IN LIFE AND IN DEATH. 337 

crucified, the dying Saviour, the soul is safe, for his 
suffering is their comfort, his death their life. 

The old and virtuous heing in need of faith in Christ 
on account of their proximity to their end, what must 
be the necessities of such as have passed all their days 
in forgetfulness of God, and with no remembrance of 
duty ? In youth they journeyed without the pilgrim's 
staff, and they may have felt there was no need of 
support to the soul The eye was then able to glance 
rapidly and widely over the expanse of pleasures, 
and no time was found for serious reflection. Their 
strength of body may have been consumed in the ser- 
vice of vice, their mind unbalanced through the al- 
lurements of sin, and the whole man devoured by the 
carking cares of life, and old age find them, as it 
were, sitting by the wayside begging for alms of Hap- 
piness, should she haply pass by. They have seen 
the end of many, for death has made a careful glean- 
ing in the field where they have so long remained, — 
not forgetting to put in his greedy sickle once more 
to see if there be yet another left standing ; but they 
have not seriously considered their own destination. 
They see the sun rise and go down in the western 
hemisphere, but have not been taught thereby to 
think of the evening when their sun of life is gone. 
They have seen the spring, summer, autumn, and 
winter come and go for a great many years ; yet it is 
not remembered that the one follows the other in cer- 
tain succession, and that this winter of death should 
in like manner usher in a spring-time of youth to 
the hoary-headed sinner. It is the eleventh hour 
with such, and no work done in the vineyard: it is 
the eleventh hour, and they have been all the while 

15 



338 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

Jurying their talent in the earth, and watching lest 
any should steal it away. Should not these remem- 
ber the old man of fourscore years and over, who, 
when asked about the love of God, replied, " Young- 
man, I have lived these many years and I never saw 
God, neither have I known him. Tell me not of the 
existence of such a being." Then said the young 
and warm-hearted inquirer, " Go to your place of re- 
tirement : bow down your gray head once in your life, 
and ask of the heavens if they can reveal any such a 
being to thee." He went : no eye saw the staff laid 
aside and the trembling knee bent to prayer in secret; 
no human ear heard the whispered name of the God 
of heaven; no one traced the thought to its object in 
the skies ; no one saw the smile upon the countenance 
of the Saviour, nor witnessed the joy among the an- 
gels; but he came out a new man, and when his death 
took place, only a few weeks afterward, he went with 
a light heart to his Maker. 

There is therefore need of faith in the whole of life, 
in order to discharge its duties and prepare for heaven. 
Even in death there is a duty to the living to be re- 
garded. The dying should go hence so as to paint 
the way with glorious colours, that those remaining 
yet longer may not shrink from the entrance of the 
valley. They should send back, at parting, something 
of the radiant smile common to the spirit world ; they 
should look and point upwards, if they cannot speak, 
thus telling of the way they go. 

In youth, therefore, it is the province of faith to 
direct the mind to One in whom they may safely con- 
fide in that season of trust. As early as they can sin, 
so soon can the young believe, and be saved from such 



FAITH IN LIFE AND IN DEATH. 339 

sin as they commit. By it the youthful spirit is truly 
set free in the pursuit of happiness, selecting out of 
the world all that is in any way calculated to become 
serviceable, and from heaven the portion of which the 
world is ignorant. Obedient to the precepts of God, 
and the dictates of parental authority, things begin 
to " work together for good ;" and even the wicked 
placing their highest confidence in the virtuous, the 
earlier acts of life's drama open well. Taught in 
the school of faith and duty, love to God and man, 
the young rise faster and higher than even the old, 
when devoid of these things. The wisdom of a sage 
may, in this way, exist in the mind of a child, while 
the most ancient may have no understanding. Be- 
lieving in the Scriptures, and regarding every con- 
sideration that tends to duty, the human race will find 
in its young champion a soul destined to tell on the 
future. Were all the youth in our time to become 
Christians, the generations to come might well say 
there were giants also in this day; giants not in 
bodily strength only, but more particularly in the 
remarkable capacity of mind and heart. But as it is, 
a sickly regimen of vice is too often prescribed and 
followed, perverting the designs of the Creator in 
sending them into the world; and, smothered and 
choked, the fires of true genius when but beginning to 
burn, are finally extinguished by death. Half believ- 
ing and half denying the authority and teachings of 
God, the whole business of this period is but partially 
attended to, sometimes taking the residue of life to 
undo what has been already done. " Commencing 
right is often ending well," and it is so here in a very 
remarkable manner. Fully relying on God, and fully 



340 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

determined to act rightly, the parents may be assured 
that the child will bring no reproach to his name, nor 
dishonour to theirs; and, should he fall, that he will 
rise again. With such beginning, the part to be acted 
by him in after-life will be comparatively of easy per- 
formance. 

In MANHOOD the prime portion of human history 
commences. Parental care but imperfectly exists at 
this period, and there is room for the exercise of all 
the faith likely to be stored up in youth. Dark days 
of trouble will come to every one in this world, but 
particularly to this class of beings ; but by means of 
the steady light kept burning in the soul, they will 
the more quickly pass away. The attachments to the 
world, so common to this season, will be carefully 
formed, and not suffered to draw off the affections 
from true objects. The temptations will shake but 
not shatter the bark they sail in, and, with chart and 
compass before the eye, they shall be seen bearing 
away before the breeze into the deeper and sadder 
seas. 

In declining years the faith that has lasted through- 
out youth and the prime of life should not be expected 
to fail. The old must reflect, and when they have a 
well-spent life to review, the confinement and cares of 
decrepitude are much relieved. To such the Bible 
becomes most truly the book of books ; and as they 
see written on the same page, side by side, the words 
of life and death, they also behold, in similar con- 
nexion, those of death and heaven. As on its page 
most, if not all, the scenes of human action have their 
counterpart, and the varied characters known among 
men are in feature delineated, the aged can live over 



FAITH IN LIFE AND IN DEATH. 341 

their life, and fill up much of their time in pleasing 
reminiscence. This being the sole chart for the in- 
visible world, like wise navigators they study its in- 
structions, and rejoice to know they are ready to em- 
bark. 

In death, lastly, is faith to be exercised. One by 
one mankind steal away from the ranks of the living 
and return no more. They are borne to the quiet 
precincts of the dead, and left to its solitude. Earth, 
therefore, seems but the vestibule to some other scene 
— and what ? 

" I went towards the burying-ground, and wept 

To think of the departure of friends, which were captives to death : 

I said, Where are they ? and Fate 

Gave back this answer by Echo, Where are they? 71 

We retire at night to our couches, and put on the 
semblance of death ; but when the morning dawns 
we come forth to greet each other again. Or, what 
is still more surprising — 



• The mallows, when they die. 



Or garden herbs, and sweet anethum's pride, 

Blooming in vigour, wake again to life, 

And nourish beauteous through another year ; 

But we, the great, the mighty, and the ivise, 

When once we die, unknown in earth's dark womb, 

Sleep, long and drear, the endless sleep of death." 

The sad question that Echo could only answer by 
repeating Where, Faith solves — and we know where 
the quickening energy of the mortal part has gone. 
Faith unravels the mystery of this failure on the part 
of man to return, when removed by death. For she 
can sing, — 



342 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

" There is a home for weary souls, 

By sin and sorrow driven, 
When toss'd on life's tempestuous shoals, 
Where storms arise and ocean rolls, 

And all is drear but heaven. 

"There fragrant flowers immortal bloom, 

And joys supreme are given; 
There rays divine disperse the gloom, 
Beyond the confines of the tomb 

Appears the dawn of heaven." 

But all who die and are thus tenanted in the tomb 
may not reach the " home for weary souls;" for faith 
continues to announce, — 

" Nothing is worth a thought beneath, 
But how I may escape the death 

That never , never dies ! 
How make mine own election sure ; 
And when I fail on earth, secure 

A mansion in the skies." 

And it appearing that faith not only points out the 
way to the skies, but offers its services as that which 
alone can secure " that rest remaining for the people 
of God," we have to lament over the death-bed scene 
of many who seemed not to exercise this divine prin- 
ciple. Such scenes are solemn, and sadden all who 
reflect on them, but perhaps do as much good in warn- 
ing the living as do the departure of saints. When 
it is seen that the scoffers at religion in a dying hour 
disavow their own creeds, and, quivering on the verge 
of eternity, show the need of something which they 
have not to smooth the pillow and cheer the spirit, 
and see others, professing Christianity and walking 
humbly before God all their days, become more tran- 
quil and happy when death arrives, the conviction 



FAITH IN LIFE AND IN DEATH. 343 

forces itself upon us, that the latter system of living 
and dying is the only one worthy of consideration ; 
and that faith is a boon for which man should be 
thankful, and all, from the least to the greatest, 
should never fail to exercise it. " By it we learn," 
says the apostle, " that the worlds were made f } by 
it we learn that Adam fell; by it we learn that Christ 
came into the world to save sinners ; and by it that " he 
ever liveth to make intercession for us in heaven." 
How indebted are we to faith ! It reveals — bids come 
away to rest — and then saves! Would that all might 
exercise it, and obtain " that inheritance incorruptible, 
undefiled, and that fadeth not away." 

Voltaire, it is said, when about to die, in spite of 
the admonitions of his friends, sent for the cure of St. 
Gervais, and, after confession, signed, in the presence 
of the Abbe Mignot and of the Marquis de Villevielle, 
his recantation of his infidelity. He was heard, in 
anguish and dread, supplicating or blaspheming God. 
He would exclaim, " O, Christ ! O, Jesus Christ !" 
and then complain that he was abandoned by God and 
man. His physicians were unable to bear the sight, 
and, thunderstruck, retired. Richelieu fled from his 
side, declaring it to be a sight too horrible to be en- 
dured; and Dr. Tronchin observed that the furies of 
Orestes could give but a faint idea of the scene. Con- 
dorcet, a friend of Voltaire, boasted that D'Alembert 
refused the admission of the cure in his second visit to 
him; but the evidence is sufficient to show that he 
died with much the same regrets and sufferings as his 
friend. Hume, Gibbon, and Diderot, all died without 
any such comfort as faith affords ; and the death of 
Paine was such as might have been expected from a 



344 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

knowledge of his life. When asked by his medical 
attendant whether he wished to believe in Christ as 
the Son of God, he replied, that he " had no wish to 
believe on the subject ;" yet in his agony of mind and 
body, he would invoke the name of the Saviour in a 
tone of voice that would alarm the household. How 
poignant the reflection that could wring from this 
blasphemer such solemn words as these: "I think I 
can say what they make Jesus Christ to say, * My 
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me V "° 

But let us turn from such sad pictures to the death 
of those who have gone hence with Christian triumph. 
And where are we to begin, when so many have left 
rich legacies in the words last uttered ? Is it to the 
bedside of the great or wise we are to come to receive 
the bright evidences of religious experience ; or do the 
humble, the despised and unknown, have also to die 
and prove the truth of the gospel in being " the power 
of God unto salvation to every one that belie v- 
eth ?" 

No Christian minister perhaps ever witnessed more 
occasions of death, and under greater variety of cir- 
cumstances, than Mr. Wesley, during his extended 
labours of over sixty years. Many of these death-bed 
scenes he has reported in his diary, and, as we think, 
usefully to the world ; as the reading of such facts 
tends to quicken us in duty, if we already have reli- 
gion, or spur us on, if we have it not, in the search for 
the pearl of great price — a religious principle that will 
serve the purpose of the dying.' We therefore advert 
to a few of these instances, just as entered by him at 
the time of their occurrence : — 
°Dr. Home. 



FAITH IN LIFE AND IN DEATH. 345 

" Thursday, 6, (1744.) — I committed to the dust the 
remains of Elizabeth Marsh, a young woman who had 
received a sense of the pardoning love of God about 
four years before her death, and had never left her 
first love. She had scarcely known health or ease 
from that hour ; but she never murmured or repined 
at anything. I saw her many times after she was con- 
fined to her bed, and found her always quiet and calm, 
always cheerful, praising God in the fires, though 
longing to depart and to be with Christ. I could not 
learn that her mind was ever clouded ; no, not for a 
moment from the beginning of her illness. But a few 
days before she died she told me, ' I am concerned ; I 
spoke a hasty word to-day. One told me, "You shall 
recover within ten days," and I said, I don't want to 
recover.' A little before her speech failed she beck- 
oned one to her and said : ' Go and tell M B 

from me, she must come back to Mr. W , I have 

not breath to speak to her myself ; but do you tell her 
she must come back.' She had lost her voice when I 
prayed with her the last time and commended her soul 
to God ; but 

1 Her eye dropt sense, distinct and clear, 
As any muse's tongue could speak.' 

It is said, * To me, to die is gain. I walk through the 
valley of the shadow of death, and fear no evil.' 

" 1 could only speak a few words at her grave ; but 
when I returned to the Foundry, God made his word 
as a flame of fire. I spoke from that passage in the 
Bevelation : ' And one of the elders said unto me, What 
are these which are arrayed in white robes ? and whence 
came they ? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. 

15* 



346 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

x\nd he said unto ine, These are they which came out 
of great tribulation, and have washed their robes 
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.' 

"A young man went home deeply affected. The 
next day he was taken ill, and every day grew worse, 
so that when I came to the house on Monday, the 10th, 
he was just gasping for breath. It was a melancholy 
sight. Both his words and his eyes ■ witnessed huge 
affliction and dismay.' Death stared him in the face ; 
and he knew not God. He could but just say, 'For 
God's sake pray for me V 

" J. N. coming in, we asked life for our brother, in 
full confidence of the promise. All this day as his 
illness so his terrors increased ; but the next day God 
gave him life from the dead. He told me, ' Now I am 
not afraid to die ; for I hnoiv that God loves nje. I 
did not use to love you or your people ; but I love you 
as my own soul. I love you all : I know you are the 
people of God ; and I am just going to him. He con- 
tinued praising God as long as he could speak ; and 
when he could not, his eyes were fixed upwards. 

" Friday, 14. — I performed the last office (according 
to his desire) over his body, which was interred in the 
presence of a vast multitude of people, at a small dis- 
tance from that of Elizabeth Marsh. 

" Sunday, 16. — I buried, near the same place, one 
who had soon finished her course, going to God in the 
full assurance of faith when she was little more than 
four years old. In her last sickness (having been 
deeply serious in her behaviour for several months be- 
fore) she spent all the intervals of her convulsions in 
speaking of or to God. And when she perceived her 
strength to be nearly exhausted she desired all the 



FAITH IN LIFE AND IN DEATH. 347 

family to come near, and prayed for the Church and 
for all the world. A short time after, recovering from 
a fit, she lifted up her eyes and said, ' Thy kingdom 
come, 7 and died. 

"August 19, (1753.) — I called to see Ann Beau- 
champ, who had been sick about a week, and upon 
inquiring after her condition, she answered, ' Blessed 
be God, very well. I know that my Redeemer lives. 
He is dear to me, and I am dear to him. I know he 
is preparing me for himself, and I shall soon be with 
him. ? 

" She then prayed earnestly for entire sanctification, 
till a friend coming in she said: 'The Lord has brought 
you and all my dear friends to my remembrance ; I 
have not forgotten you in my prayers. You must 
come and pray my last prayer. Let there be no cry- 
ing over me, but all of you sing praises and rejoice 
over me.' 

" She never once complained of her pain, but be- 
haved from the beginning with patience, and sweetness, 
and love to all, that bespoke a soul which knew her- 
self just entering into the joy of her Lord. This she 
did the next morning, August 20, after crying out as 
in an ecstasy, 

* Bold, I approach the eternal throne, 

And claim the crown through Christ my own.' 

"August 11, (1748). — Several of our brethren called 
upon him, (Francis B.,) and found his hope gradually 
increasing. 

"Monday, 12. — He expressed a strong confidence in 
the mercy of God, and said he feared nothing but lest 
he should live and turn back into the world. Before 



348 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

noon he was a little delirious ; but as soon as any one 
spoke of God, he recovered himself and prayed so ve- 
hemently as to set all that heard him in tears. I 
called once more about six in the evening, and com- 
mended his soul to God. He was speechless, but not 
without sense, as the motion of his lips plainly showed, 
though his eyes were generally fixed upwards with a 
look which said, 'I see God.' About half an hour 
after I went away his soul was set at liberty. 

" Thus, in the strength of his years, died Francis 
B., one in whose lips was found no guile. He was an 
honest man, fearing God and earnestly endeavouring 
to work righteousness. 

" Saturday, 24.— I buried the body of W. MT., who, 
towards the close of a long illness, had been removed 
to Gray's hospital, though with small hope of recovery. 
The night before his death he was delirious, and talked 
loud and incoherently, which occasioned many in the 
ward to gather round his bed in order to divert them- 
selves. But in that hour it pleased God to restore 
him at once to the full use of his understanding, and 
he began praising God and exhorting them to repent, 
so as to pierce many a heart. He remained for some 
time in this last labour of love, and then gave up his 
soul' to God. 

"Monday, March 30> (1747.)— I had leisure to re- 
flect on the strange case of Francis Coxon, who was at 
first the grand support of the society at Biddick. . . . 
On Wednesday the surgeon told him honestly, 'he 
thought he could not live,' Then he awoke out of 
sleep. The snares of death came about him ; the 
pains of hell overtook him. He continued all Thurs- 
day and Friday in the lowest pit, in a place of dark- 



FAITH IN LIFE AND IN DEATH. 349 

ness and in the deep, warning all to beware of draw- 
ing back unto perdition, and calling upon God with 
strong cries and tears. On Sunday he found a little 
dawning of hope. This gradually increased all the 
day. On Monday he knew God had healed his back- 
sliding, and sorrow and sighing fled away. He con- 
tinued all day in fervent prayer, mingled with praise 
and strong thanksgiving. * This night/ said he, ' will 
be & glorious night to me. My warfare is accomplished. 
My sin is pardoned. 7 Then he broke out again into 
vehement prayer. About eight he left off speaking, 
and soon after, without any struggle or groan, gave up 
his soul to God." 

Having seen this holy man at the couch of the 
dying under many a variety of circumstances, in the 
time of trial to the young, and the middle-aged, and 
been edified by his intelligent account of the work of 
grace in the soul, we now behold him at the bedside of 
his sainted mother. We prefer his own language. He 
says: "I left Bristol in the evening of Sunday, 18th 
July, (1742,) and on Tuesday came to London. I 
found my mother on the borders of eternity. But 
she had no doubt or fear, nor any desire but (as soon 
as God should call) to depart and be with Christ 

" Friday, 30. — About three in the afternoon I went 
to my mother, and found her change was near. I sat 
down on the bedside. She was in her last conflict ; 
unable to speak, but, I believe, quite sensible. Her 
look was calm and serene, and her eyes fixed upward, 
while we commended her soul to God. From three 
to four the silver cord was loosing, and the wheel 
breaking at the cistern ; and then, without any struggle, 
or sigh, or groan, the soul was set at liberty. We 



350 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

stood round the bed and fulfilled her last request, 
uttered a little before she lost her speech, l Children, 
as soon as I am released, sing a psalm to God.'" 

But how did this devoted minister of the gospel 
finish Ms course ? He had preached faith in Christ as 
the only hope, and witnessed the triumph of many a 
dying Christian ; and now, at the age of four-score 
and over, his flesh must fail. Shall he deny the faith, 
or die like a soldier of the cross ? " While they were 
seating him for the last time in a chair by his bed- 
side," says the biographer, " he broke out, in a man- 
ner which, considering his extreme weakness, aston- 
ished all present, in singing : — 

* I'll praise my Maker while I've breath. 
And when my voice is lost in death, 

Praise shall employ my nobler powers : 
My days of praise shall ne'er be past, 
While life, and thought, and being last, 

Or immortality endures. 7 

And at death, after exclaiming, ' The Lord is with us, 
the God of Jacob is our refuge/ he closed his last 
breath with 'I'll praise — I'll praise. 7 His death was 
an admirable close to so laborious and useful a life. 
In his life and death faith had indeed a champion." 

There are other tests of faith scattered through life, 
but the trial at death may be said to excel them all. 
Death alone cannot confer it, though many seem to 
suppose some extraordinary assistance will be rendered 
in that solemn hour. The probation for eternity is 
strictly confined to time. Unless the soul is ready 
when the dying moment arrives, there is no hope of 
heaven. Life is given as a probationary state, and 
death is intended to close it. By the love of Christ 



FAITH IN LIFE AND IN DEATH. 351 

being deeply planted in the soul, and expanded more 
and more until life ends, the spirit is so purified and 
emboldened in hope as to be as ready to rise to God 
as vapour to ascend from the sea under the warming 
effects of the sun. It only waits to be let loose from 
the body to wing its flight upward to heaven. But a 
small measure of faith may prove insufficient to en- 
able the soul to keep Christ in view, and this is im- 
portant ; as, if the eye is taken off for a moment, dark- 
ness will begin to gather around it. If, therefore, the 
whole of life has but then to be repented of, and an 
acquaintance but then formed with God, the pains of 
dissolution must indeed be light to afford occasion for 
such mixed reflections as death-bed repentance indi- 
cates. When the blood is coursing through the veins 
for the last time, and the flutter of the heart betokens 
its latest efforts at action, is not a moment for con- 
verse with the past : thought should rather deal with 
the present and future. With the present not so 
much for the purpose of contracting its sentiment, as 
to exert, in a parting hour, a kind and valued influ- 
ence upon it — to impart to the living the sacred testi- 
mony of the dying concerning the blessings of faith in 
Christ. That testimony is worth more than all the 
rest in life, if the view is distinct, and the thought of 
the dying cheerfully communicated. It is true, many 
good men expire with a cloud resting on their moral 
vision ; but those who have generally had bright ex- 
perience up to the time of departure, will perhaps 
usually have sunlight to rest on their pillow. The 
last expressions of that servant of God, the Eev. Free- 
born Garrettson, may be given to exemplify this 
thought; for he had been a "bright and shining 



3o2 PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE OF FAITH. 

light" in his day, and, though labouring under great 
bodily suffering at the close, his last sentences, says 
his biography, " spoken even in death, were, ' Holy, 
holy, holy, Lord God Almighty ! Hallelujah ! Hallelu- 
jah V After that, though he lingered some hours, he 
could not speak articulately. Once only, clasping his 
hands and raising his eyes to heaven, he uttered, 
6 Glory ! Glory V And the spirit departed, leaving 
the body impressed with the sweetest expression of 
peace and tranquillity ; and," continues his daughter, 
whose account of his death Eev. Dr. Bangs, his biog- 
rapher, inserts in his life, " an expression which it re- 
tained until the moment when it was shrouded from 
human observation. We could stand beside those 
dear remains and imagine that their appearance of 
renewed youth and happiness was a pledge of that 
glorious resurrection when death shall be swallowed 
up in victory, and the mortal put on immortality ; 
and we could look on the grave as a sure and certain 
deposit, until that day when it shall give back its 
precious seed rejoicing." 

If a life of obedience has marked the career of the 
dying, it should impart its confidence to the mind, and 
though not create faith, yet help it in its work of puri- 
fying and strengthening for the last struggle. In 
order to enter heaven the spirit must be wholly re- 
newed by the grace of God ; and it is far better to 
have it purified at first. If kept pure and unspotted 
through life, how glorious will be death ! If cleansed 
and sanctified in middle-life, and holiness be main- 
tained to the end, still how full of glory the parting 
hour may be ! But if the tottering tread of the sin- 
ner has brought him to the place where he must sleep, 



FAITH IN LIFE AND IN DEATH. 353 

without faith in Christ, beside his couch shall gather 
thickly the demons from beneath to await the end ; 
and yet, even in that alarming hour, he may repent, 
believe, and be saved. Praise be to God for his ma- 
turing grace, and especially such love as can snatch 
a soul from the destruction " as a brand from the 
burning !" 

Let us exercise a faith that will enable our souls 
calmly to fall asleep in Jesus ; and if that faith be 
sought, it will be denied to none. Let faith in Christ 
have its " perfect work," and all may rest assured 
that when the spirit is separated from its tenement 
of clay, like the angels at Manoah's sacrifice, it shall 
rise upon the flame of sacred love diffused through its 
latest prayer, and ascend uninterruptedly to its source 
— its heaven — the bosom of God. 



THE END. 



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Smith's Sacred Annals. 

Sacred Annals ; or, Researches into the History and Religion of Man- 
kind. 2 vols. 
This icorh forms part of the course of study adopted by the last General 
Conference. 
Vol. I. — The Patriarchal Age ; or, the History and Religion of 
Mankind from the Creation to the Death of Isaac : deduced from 
the Writings of Moses, and other Inspired Authors, and illustrated 
by Copious References to the Ancient Records, Traditions, and My- 
thology of the Heathen World. By George Smith, F. S. A., <fcc, &c. 

8vo.,pp.522. Sheep $2 00 

Extra half-calf, (an elegant Library 

binding,) 2 50 

This is an elaborate work. The author has grappled fearlessly with every diffi- 
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prefers the chronology of the Septuagint to that of our Hebrew Bibles, and 
in this he is sustained by the judgment of many eminent scholars. There 
has no work been issued in a long time from our Book Room of so much 
real worth. — Northern Christian Advocate. 

A book suitable both for the learned and the unlearned; indeed, it is unique 
with regard to the importance and compass of the subjects which it em- 
braces, as well as with regard to the spirit in which they are treated. — 
Wesleyan Methodist Magazine. 

This is unquestionably the most valuable work that has been for a long time 
issued from the Methodist press. The copy before us — paper, printing, 
binding — is a credit to the publishers. — Southern Christian Advocate. 

The information which the author has condensed from various sources is pre- 
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have been much gratified by the union of piety and sober judgment which 
he has evinced in the application of history and science to the confirmation 
of the Mosaic narrative. — Church-of- England Quarterly Review. 

The work is a monument of patience, industry, and research. — Biblical Rev. 

The announcement that such subjects have been ably and thoroughly dis 
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the volume, and peruse it attentively. We can assure them that they 
will be amply repaid. — West Briton. 

The work supplies a desideratum in sacred literature. We can strongly recom- 
mend it to all who are desirous of thoroughly understanding the history of 
the Bible. — Irish Ecclesiastical Journal. 

The present work is one of great merit, not only in a literary point of view, 
but also as an exposition of many passages of human history which are 
exceedingly obscure, and upon which much learned speculation has been 
expended. — Christian Advocate and Journal. 

Mr. Smith has succeeded in presenting to the Bible student a volume which 
it would be difficult to surpass in interest and value. — Evangelical Chris' 
tendom. 

Miller s German Missions. 

Origin and Progress of the German Missions in the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. Including an Account of the Christian Experience of some 
of the Converts from Popery and Infidelity, as furnished by themselves. 
By Rev. Adam Miller, German Missionary. 

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Coles's Juvenile Lectures. 

Lectures to Children, on various interesting Subjects. By Rev. Geo. 
Coles. Fifth thousand. 

ISmo., pp. 128. Muslin ..-." $Q 25 

We have read this interesting little volume with a pleasure which we do not 
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adaptation to the capacity and feelings of the child. The interest is pre- 
served in every page. — Brooklyn Advocate. 

We have not for a long time taken a Sunday-school book in our hands with 
which we were so much pleased. — Zion's Herald. 

We know of no one who is better adapted to entertain and enlighten children 
in their true duties than the able author of this little work. — Pbughkeepsie 
Telegraxjlu 

Coles s Address on the Bible. 

An Address delivered before the Young Men's Bible Society of Hart- 
ford, in tiie Centre Church, Feb. 2%, 1836. By Rev. George Coles. 

Svo., pp. 40. Paper covers * $0 05 

Sunday School Orator : 

Being a Collection of Pieces, original and selected, both in prose and 
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Sunday -School Reciter : 

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18mo., pp.168 ." SO 25 

A large collection of tasteful and appropriate pieces, in prose and poetry, 
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management of such occasions are given in the preface. 

Woolseifs Supernumerary. 

The Supernumerary ; or, Lights and Shadows of Itinerancy. Com- 
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ence. By Rev. George Coles. Second thousand. 

18mo., pp. 184. Muslin or sheep SO 30 

This little volume will be read with deep interest. The incidents in the life 
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■whether in Europe or America, are among the few means left to us by 
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Women of the Bible. 
The Women of the Bible. By Chaeles Adams. 

12mo., pp. 225. Muslin $0 40 

Eev. Charles Adams has aimed to write a sober, faithful book, keeping his 
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the imagination. — Cliristian Advocate and Journal. 

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inspired pen has represented her, so far as she has arisen to view in the 
divine history of God's providential and gracious dispensations to mankind, 
and so far as that pen may have sketched more didactically her true posi- 
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Peeps at Nature. 



Peeps at Nature ; or, God's Work and Man's Wants. With Illus- 
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18mo., pp. 526. Muslin SO 60 

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and reverent communings with nature's God. — Rev. F. G. Hibbard. 

A very fine Sunday-school book. These conversations on natural science 
contain all the rudiments of natural theology, and yet in a style so clear 
and so simple, as to captivate the juvenile mind. — Northern Christian Adv. 

The whole have the same design, to furnish interesting information on 
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Roland Rand. 

Roland Rand ; or, God's Poor. By Mrs. C. M. Edwards. With Illus- 
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18mo., pp. 131. Muslin $0 20 

We have read it with great profit and delight, and we think that he who 
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The design of this narrative is to show the triumph of virtue over vice, and 
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Ancient Egypt. 

Ancient Egypt : its Monuments and History. 

18mo., pp. 214. Muslin $0 25 

To the youthful student of sacred history this work will afford a key to many 
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Old Testament. The manners and customs of the ancient Egyptians are 
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will make an agreeable companion during an idle hour, or a leisure mo- 
ment. — Christian Advocate and Journal. 

An account of one of the most ancient and interesting countries of the world. 
It furnishes a topographical description of Egypt, . . . its history, especially 
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Helps for Every Hour. 

Helps for Every Hour. 

32mo., pp. 54. Giltedges $0 15 

A beautiful little volume. The motto is worthy of general attention :— 
" Whate'er we think, or do, or say, 

In sunshine or in shower, 
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A help for every hour." 

Jerusalem, Ancient and Modern. 

Ancient Jerusalem. By Dr. Kitto. 
Modern Jerusalem. By Dr. Kitto. 

(With maps and illustrations. Two volumes in one.) 
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Modern Jerusalem, containing the history of Jerusalem, from the days of 
our Saviour's incarnation to its destruction by Titus, and then onward to 
the Crusades, and to modern times. The localities connected with Scrip- 
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Jewish Nation, the. 

The Jewish Nation : containing an Account of their Manners and Cus- 
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12mo., pp. 416. Muslin SO 70 

Well deserving to be used as a text-book in Bible classes. — Rev. Freeborn 

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It will be found one of the most valuable works on the subject ever published. 

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in a way to throw much light upon the Bible, and to serve an excellent 

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Idumcea. 

Idumsea. With a Survey of Arabia and the Arabians. With maps. 
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A description of a country of high historic interest as the residence of the 
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This volume .... contains a succinct view of the history, people, and present 
state of Idumaea, throwing much light on Scripture history, geography, and 
prophecy.— Christian Advocate and Journal. 



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Persia, History of Ancient. 

History of Ancient Persia, abridged chiefly from Rollin. With addi- 
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18mo., pp. 255. $0 26 

A good history, . written on Christian principles, will always be found an 

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A useful abridgement from the popular works of one of the best historians of 

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Pizarro. 

Pizarro ; or, the Discovery and Conquest of Peru. By Geo. Cubitt. 
18mo., pp. 179. Muslin $0 25 

This oft-told tale is here well told for the benefit of children. — Richmond 

Cliristian Advocate. 
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Daniel Wise, A. M. 
Rev. George Cubitt is the author of several works in our Sunday-school 

library. He is a good writer of history, and always repays the reader for 

his pains. — Northern Christian Advocate. 

Cortes. 

Cortes ; or, the Discovery and Conquest of Mexico. By Geo. Cubitt. 
18mo., pp. 218. Muslin $0 25 

Much praise is to be awarded to the author for his labor, in condensing the 
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Rev. George Cubitt has condensed into this volume all that is essential to- 
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Sabbath School, the. 

The Sabbath School, and Bible Teaching. By James Inglis. 

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Townley's Illustrations of Biblical Literature. 

Illustrations of Biblical Literature : exhibiting the History and Fate 
of the Sacred Writings from the earliest Period to the present Cen- 
tury ; including Biographical Notices of Translators and other emi- 
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Dr. Townley's Illustrations are essential to every good library ; and to all 
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Intelligencer. 

Funeral Discourse on Mrs. Garrettson. 

Life Inexplicable, except as a Probation. A Discourse delivered in the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, Rhinebeck, New-York, July 16th, 1849, 
at the Funeral of Mrs. Catherine Garrettson. By Stephen Olin, D. D. 

18mo., pp. 64. Paper covers SO 10 

Muslin 15 

It is characterized by the well-known ability of the preacher. The discus- 
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Young on the World's Conversion. 

Suggestions for the Conversion of the World, respectfully submitted to 
the Christian Church. By Rev. Robert Young. Fifth thousand. 

18mo., pp. 146. Muslin $0 30 

Mr. Young's object is to promote the exertions of every Christian in his own 
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Ccesar, (Julius,) Life of 

Life of Julius Caesar. 

18mo., pp. 180. Muslin $0 30 

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